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amcrican "Ibiatoric Cowns. 

Historic Towns of New England. 

Edited by Lyman I'. I'ovvKLi.. With Introduc- 
tion by Gkokgk p. Morris. Fully illustrated. 
Large S\ $3.50. 

Historic Towns of the Middle States. 

Edited by Lyman I'. I'owi.i.l. With Litroduc- 
tion by Ai.RKKT Shaw. Fully illustrated. Large. 
8 , $3.50 



G. P. PUTNAM '.S SON.S, New York and London; 



anicrican Ibistonc ^Tovx^ns 

HISTORIC TOWNS 

OF 

THE MIDDLE STATES 



Edited by 

LYMAN P. POWELL 



Illustrated 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
NEW YORK & LONDON 
Zbc Iknichcrbocket press 

1899 



0?UVti?fo 



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fcf 



f^DV211899 



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TWO COPIES RECEIVED. 

Library of Congre«^ 
Office of th« 

NOV 1 8 1BPP 

RegJstir of Copyrights, 



4GG95 

Copyright, iSgg 

15 V 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 



SECOND COPY, 



Ube ftnicfsei'boclscr press, mew U^ocl; 






PREFACE 



IN offering to the public the second vokime 
of American Historic Towns the editor 
desires to bring three facts to the considera- 
tion of tlie reader, 

1. This being the middle volume of a series 
dealing with the older towns along, or near, 
the Eastern coast, it is hoped that the title 
Historic Tozujis of the Middle States will seem 
not inappropriate. 

2. The plan which underlay the making of 
the first volume, Historic Towns of New Eng- 
land, has in the main been followed. Each 
author has invariably been chosen because 
of unique fitness for his special task. The 
editor believes that in every case the enthusi- 
asm of the native or the resident will be found 
wedded to the perspective of the litterateur or 
scholar. No effort has been made to harmon- 
ize divergencies in style or judgment, for ob- 
vious reasons. The success of the first volume 



IV 



Preface 



has set the stamp of approval on the method 
of the series, and the editor is olad to an- 
nounce that a volume on the Southern towns 
will shortly follow this. 

3. The chapter on Princeton first served as 
an address in 1894 before the Historical Pil- 
grims on the last day of their Pilgrimage, 
which is described in Historic Tozvns of N^ew 
England, pp. iii.-v. 

To the making of this volume many have 
contributed in various ways. The editor is 
under special obligation to his wife, Gertrude 
Wilson Powell, for such assistance as makes 
her really a co-editor of the volume. Dr. 
Albert Shaw, and Mr. Melvil Dewey too have 
given freely of their counsel and encourage- 
ment, and the editor is happy to acknowledge 
their great kindness. 

Lyman P. Powell 

St. John's Rectory, 
Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, 
October 17, 1S99. 



CONTENTS 



Introduction . 

Albany 

Saratoga. 

Schenectady . 

Newburgh 

Tarrytown-on- 

HUDSON 

New York City 

Brooklyn. 

Princeton 

Philadelphia 

Wilmington 

Buffalo . 

Pittsburgh 



Albert Shaw . 
Walton W. Battershall 
Ellen Hardin Walworth 
Judson S. Landon . 
Adelaide Skeel 

Hamilton Wright Mabie 

Joseph B. Gilder 
Harrington Putnam . 
William M. Sloane . 
Talcott Williams 
E. N. Vallandigham 
Rowland B. Mahany 
Samuel Harden Church 



PAGE 
XV 



39 

71 

107 

137 

169 
213 

251 
297 

335 
367 
393 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



The "Half-Moon" on the Hudson, 1609. Frontispiece 
From the painting by L. W. Seavey. 

ALBANY 

Old Chart of Nieu Nederlandt' .... 

Plan of Albany, 1695 ' 

Old Dutch Church, Erected in 1715 on Site of Ork.i 

nal Church Erected in 1656 "... 

St. Peter's Church Erected in 1715. Fort FRKni-.KicK 

in the Background ' 

From a water-color sketch in the British Museum. 
Major-General Philip Schuyler ' . . . . 

From the painting by Colonel Trumlnill. 
Stephen Van Rensselaer ' 

From the painting by Ezra Ames. 
Van Rensselaer Manor-House, 1765"^ 

Schuyler Mansion, 1760' 

West Side of Pearl Street, from State Street 'i 

Maiden Lane, 1S14' 

View hf Albany, 1899'^ 

John \'. L. Pruyn .... • • 
Seal of Albany 

> Reproduced by permission of Augustus Pruyn, Albany, N. Y. 

- Reproduced by permission of Dr. Samuel B. Ward, Albany, N. Y. 



5 
II 

13 

15 
23 
25 

26 
27 



35 
37 



VIU 



Illustrations 



SARATOGA 

Saratoga Lake. X. Y. 

Map Showing Historic and Other Drives in the Vicin 

iTY OF Saratoga Springs 

Saratoga Battle Moncment, Schi'ylerville. N. Y. 
North Broadway, Saratoga Springs, 1S9S 

General Philip Schuyler 

Bronze statue in niche of Saratoga monument. Schuyler 

ville, X. Y. 
Congress Spring in 1S20 ...... 

Kayadrosser.\ P.\tent, with Great Seal of Qieen 

Anne Fend.^nt, 170S 

Original in Saratoga County Clerk's Otfice. 
"Women of the Revolution, 1776 .... 

From tablet on Saratoga battle monument, Schuylerville 

X. Y. 
" Old ^YELL," Freeman's Farm, B.^ttle-grovnd, Bemi; 

Heights, Sept. 19, 1777 ..... 

General D.\niel Morgan 

Congress Spring, 1S9S ....... 

Sign, "Putnam .\nd the "Wolf," on Putnam's Tavern 

Sar.\tog.\ Springs 

Original sign in Grand Union Hotel, Saratoga Springs 

N. Y. 
Se-al of Saratog.a. ....... 



40 

42 

43 
47 



61 

63 
66 

67 



SCHEXECTADY 



CoLONi.\L House, Union Street 

View on State Street 

" The Blue G.a.te" Entrance to Union College Grounds 
Glen-Sanders M.\nsion, Erected 1714 . 

First Reformed (Dutch) Church 

Ellis Hospit.xl ......... 



S7 
90 



Illustrations 



IX 



Edison Hotf.i. .... 
Union College, 1795 . 
Statue, Site of "Old Fort" . 
" The Brook that Bounds thro' 
Union Colleok . 

Elii'halet Nott .... 

President of Union College for sixty 
Seal of Schenectady . 







93 






99 






100 


Union's 


Grounds," 


103 
105 


years. 




106 



NEWBURGII 



AVashington's Headquarters at Newburgh ' . . . 109 

Joel T. Headley'- m 

The Lutheran Church H3 

Andrew J. Downing- 116 

Henry Kirke Brown- 119 

Headquarters of Major-General Knox at Vail's Gate' 123 
Clinton's Headquarters at Little Britain, near New- 
burgh 124 

•Clinton Statue in Colden Square, Newhurgh . . 126 

The Williams House ' 129 

Monument on Temple Hill, near Newburgh ^ . . 130 

The Verplanck House ^ 131 

Baron Steuben's headtjuarters, where the " Nicola Letter" 
was written. 
Washington's Headquarters at Fishkill-* . . -133 

Charles Downing- i34 

Seal of Newburgh i35 

'■ Reproduced by permission from A'/>i^ H',is/iiri,^/on, by AdeUiide Skecl and 
"William H. Bre.irley. 

•^ l-'rom Booi- of Nc7vburgh. 

' From Spirit of ^6. 

* From A»terican Patriots. 



X 



Illustrations 



TARRYTOWN-ON-HUDSON 

Bird's-eye View of Tarrytown ..... 139 

From a photograph by F. Ahrens. 
The Pocantico River i49. 

From a photograph. 
Old Manor-House (" Flypse's Castle") and Mill, Tar- 
rytown . 151 

The Old Dutch Church, Sleepy Hollow . . .153 

From a drawing by W. J. Wilson. 
Interior of the Old Dutch Church, Sleepy Hollow, 

Prior to Its Restoration in 1897 . . . .155 

From a photograph by F. Ahrens. 
Monument to the Captors of Andre .... 159, 

From a photograph by F. Ahrens. 

Washington Irving 161 

"Sunnyside" ......... 163. 

The home of Washington Irving. 
The Jacob Mott House, where Katrina Van Tassel 

was Married ........ 165. 

Now occupied by the new Washington Irving High School. 

Seal of Tarrytown 166 

Old Sleepy Hollow Mill 167 

NEW YORK CITY 



First Seal of the City, 1623-1654' . 
Map of Original Grants' . 
The Fort in Governor Kieft's D.\y 
Peter Stuyvesant .... 
Seal of the City in 1686 ' . 

John Jay 

Alexander Hamilton .... 

' Reproduced by permission from Bou<ling Green, by Spencer Tr.isk. 



170 

176 

179 
180- 



Illustrations xi 

PAGE 

pRAUNCES Tavern . 183 

The Stadt Huys igr 

Stained-Glass Window in "Bowling Green Offices," 

Showing Green about 1760' 193 

Government House '........ 195 

Federal Hall ' . ig6 

St. Paul's Church 199 

City Hall 200 

Grant's Tomb, Riverside Drive ..... 203 

Washington Arch 209 

Seal ok New York City . . . . . . .211 

BROOKLYN 

View in Brooklyn in the Olden Times .... 215 

Denyse's Ferry 217 

The first place at which the British and Hessians landed 

on Long Island, August 22, 1776. Now Fort Hamilton. 

BusHwicK Town-House and Church, iSoo . . . 223 

Section of Map of Brooklyn, 1776 231 

Brower's Mill, Gowanus 233 

The Yellow Mill is seen in the distance. 

Monument to Maryland's "400" ..... 241 

Navy Yard 243 

In foreground 5.5-inch breech-loading gun, with mount 
and shield, taken from Spanish cruiser Vizcaya, after 
destruction of Spanish fleet, July 3, 1S98 ; also sub- 
marine mine from Guantanamo. 

Fort L.\favette, New York Narrows .... 245 



Brooklyn Institute Museum 

Henry Ward Beecher 

Seal of Brooklyn .... 

' Reproduced by permission from Bcniiling Grecn^ by 



. 246 

• 247 

■ 249 
Spencer Trask. 



Xll 



Illustrations 



PRINCETON 

The Ltne of Historic Catalpas 

A View ok the Front Campus .... 

John Witherspoon 

Washington's Headquarters at Rocky Hill, N. J, 
NEAR Princeton ...... 

Morven 

Richard Stockton, "The Signer" . 
Hall in the Morven House .... 
Battle of Princeton. Death of Mercer 
From the painting by Col. J. Trumbull. 

Nassait Hall 

President James McCosh 

Seal of Princeton 



PAGE 

253 
255 

260 

261 
263 
269 

273 
277 

287 
293 

296 



PHILADELPHIA 



Reading the Declaration of Independence . . . 299 
From an old French print. 

Thomas Penn 303 

From a painting owned by the Historical Society of Penn- 
sylvania, copied by M. I. Naylor from the portrait in 
the possession of Major Dugald Stuart. 
Second Street, Philadelphia, Showing the Old Court 

House on the Left 305 

From an engraving by W. Birch & Son. 

Franklin in 1777 307 

After the print reproduced from the drawing of Cochin. 

The Philadelphia Library 309 

The old building on Fifth Street, now demolished. From 
an engraving liy W. Birch & Son. 

Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia 313 

Wherein met the First Continental Congress, 1774. 



Illustrations 



XI 11 



The Pennsylvania Hospitai 

From an engraving by W. Birch & Son. 
Independence Hai.i., Philadelphia, hekore 1876 
The Morris House, Germantown, Pjiiladelphia . 

Dk. William Pepper' 

Frank: Thomson ' . 

The Announcement op the Declaration of Indepeni 

KNCE 

Seal ok Philadelphia ....... 



PAGE 

315 



3'9 
321 

324 
326 

331 
333 



WILMINGTON 

Plan of Christina Fort, 1655 . 

Residence of the late Thomas F. Bayard- 

Old Swedes' Church 

Rev. Eric Bjork^ 

Bishop Lee . 

Thomas F. Bayard 

Shipley Building^ 

Old Friends' Meeting-IIouse 

House of the Historical Society 

City Hall 

Newcastle County Court House 
Seal ok Wilmington . 

BUFFAl^O 



338 
342 
345 
34& 
349 
351 
354 
356 
359 
361 

363 
365 



Joseph Ellicott 

Founder of Buffalo. 

Lafayette Square 

A Glimpse ok Buffalo Harhor 

' Reproduced by permission from The Outlook. 

* Reproduced by permission of Lewis C. Vandegrift, Wilmington, Del. 

' Reproduced by permission of Henry C Conrad, Wilmington, Del. 



368 

371 

375 



XIV 



Illustrations 



St. Paul's Church 

Millard Fillmore' 

Beacon on Old Breakwater 

Delaware Avenue, Showing Bishop Quigley's House 

Dr. John Cronyn 

William I. Williams 

Seal of Buffalo 



PAGE 

379 
383 
386 
388 
389 
390 
391 



PITTSBURGH 



An Early Resident of Pittsburgh 395 

From the statue by T. A. Mills in the Carnegie Museum. 

Sun-dial Used at Fort Duquesne 398 

The Earl of Chatham 403 

From an oil painting in the possession of the Historical 
Society of Pennsylvania. 

Blockhouse of Fort Pitt. Built in 1764 . . . 406 

Plan of Fort Pitt 409 

Phipps Conservatory 415 

The Coal Fleet 419 

Carnegie Institute 421 

Court House 425 

Seal of Pittsburgh 426 



Reproduced by permission of Buffalo Historical Society. 











INTRODUCTION 

By albert SHAW 

THE designation "Middle States" has a 
negative, rather than a positive, signifi- 
cance. In our later history, as well as in that 
of our colonizing and federalizing periods, the 
term " New England " has had a definite value 
for many purposes besides those of geographi- 
cal convenience : and it is equally true that 
" the South " has meant very much in our 
American life besides a mere territorial ex- 
pression. But the "Middle States " lack the 
sharply distinguishing characteristics of the 
other groups. In more senses than the strictly 
literal one, the two immense States of New 
York and Pennsylvania, with one or two smaller 
neighbors, have occupied middle ground. 

If New York, on the one hand, has been 
somewhat closely related to New England, 
Pennsylvania has had many neighborly 



xvi Introduction 

associations with Maryland and Virginia. New- 
Jersey, meanwhile, has been a close link be- 
tween Pennsylvania and New York. The de- 
velopment of New England was dominated in 
a marvellous way by a set of ideas, religious, 
political and philosophical, that belonged to a 
certain phase of the English Reformation, Vir- 
ginia and other settlements to the southward 
had their origfins in a colonizing movement 
that was more typically representative of con- 
temporary English manners, views and ways 
of living. The aristocratic system would have 
disappeared rapidly enough in the South but 
for the orradual extension of an exotic institu- 
tion, — that of African slavery. 

The Middle States had a more varied origin, 
— one that does not lend itself so readily to the 
purposes of contrast and generalization. The 
Hudson, called by the Dutch the North River, 
and the Delaware, which they called the South 
River, were both entered by Henry Hudson, 
an Englishman in the employ of the Dutch 
East India Company, in 1609 ; and apart from 
an extremely limited settlement of Swedes on 
the west bank of the Delaware, it was the 
Dutch who controlled the beginnings of Euro- 
pean settlement along the seaboard of what 



Introduction xvii 

afterward came to be known as the Middle 
States section. The Dutch colonization was 
not large, but it had a strong and persistent 
influence upon the subsequent development of 
New York and the region round about. 

The gradual predominance in New York of 
men of English speech and origin came about 
partly by infiltration from the New England 
colonies and partly by direct migration from 
England. There resulted a natural and har- 
monious fusion between the Dutch pioneers 
on the Hudson and the English-speaking colo- 
nists. Various Dutch institutions survived 
lonor after the EnMish lang-uaofe had come into 
general use. 

Before the grant of Pennsylvania to William 
Penn, the settlers on the Delaware had been 
mainly Swedish, Dutch or otherwise from con- 
tinental Europe, William Penn's colonists 
at the outset were largely English Quakers, 
and some years later there arrived great num- 
bers of Germans, some French Huguenots, 
and a good many Scotch-Irish Protestants. 

Thus, as compared with New England on 
the one hand and the vSouthern colonies on 
the other, the Middle States had cosmopoli- 
tan, rather than purely English, origins. This 



xviii Introduction 

cosmopolitanism has remained, as a leading 
factor in all their subsequent history. The 
spirit of compromise and tolerance that had 
been developed in the middle section by the 
contact of different nationalities was of incal- 
culable value when the time came for the co- 
operation of the thirteen colonies in the struggle 
for independence, and in the subsequent forma- 
tion of their federal union. 

If the colony which developed into the Em- 
pire State, and that which came to be known 
as the Keystone State, had occupied some 
other geographical position than the one they 
held as a buffer between New England and the 
South, the history of America might well have 
taken a wholly different course. For there 
was almost as much difference in institutions, 
life and points of view between the New Eng- 
landers and the Virginians of Colonial days as 
between the New Engflanders and the Cana- 
dian Frenchmen across the St. Lawrence. But 
the transition from New England to New York 
was easy, and involved no violent contrasts. 
There had been a steady movement of popula- 
tion from the New England States westward 
across the eastern boundary line of the State 
of New York. On the other hand, it was 



Introduction xix 

comparatively easy for Maryland and Virginia 
to co-operate with Pennsylvania. In so far, in- 
deed, as population had extended back from 
the tide-water districts into the hill country 
and the Appalachian valleys, the settlement 
both of Maryland and Virginia had proceeded 
very largely from Pennsylvania. 

Thus the Middle States had a great mission 
to perform in uniting and holding together the 
more extreme sections. In the development, 
after the Revolutionary War, of the country 
west of the Alleghanies, this harmonizing in- 
fluence of the Middle States was very con- 
spicuously shown in the creation of the great 
commonwealth of Ohio, and only to a less de- 
gree in the making of a number of other States 
in what has now come to be called the Middle 
West — the region that produced men of the 
type of Lincoln and Grant, and that joined 
with the old Middle States in later crises to 
preserve the Union and fuse its elements into a 
homogeneous nation. 

No communities in the world lend them- 
selves more profitably to the study of history 
than these which are described in the present 
volume. Concrete illustration aids no less in 
the study of history than in that of the physical 



XX Introduction 

sciences ; and these towns of the Middle States 
illustrate not only the more recent tenden- 
cies that have marked the course of human 
histor}-, but also lead us back by easy stages 
to an insight into conditions of an earlier time. 
For example, the survivals of the Dutch re- 
gime in New York quicken a sympathetic in- 
terest that greatly aids the comprehension of 
the international career of the Netherlands. 
On the ver}- day when these remarks are writ- 
ten, the larger news of the world — that which 
is histor}- in the making — concerns itself with 
trvvo widely severed scenes of early Dutch colo- 
nization. From Paris comes the decision of 
the Venezuela arbitration tribunal, involving 
principally the material and legal facts as to 
the extent of Dutch exploration and settle- 
ment in the same general period as the Dutch 
colonization of New York. The relations of 
the Dutch and English in successions and ex- 
changes of jurisdiction on the northern coast 
of South America can only be understood in 
the light of the histor}- of the settlements at 
the mouth of the Hudson River. 

In like manner the conditions of Dutch set- 
tlement in South Africa in the middle of the 
seventeenth century are best comprehended 



Introduction xxi 

in connection with the story of contemporary 
Dutch colonization in America. The Knick- 
erbockers of New York and the Boers of 
the Transvaal are of common origin, — a fact 
frankly recognized by the Holland Society 
of New York in its expressions of sympathy 
with the Dutch element in South Africa in its 
struggle against fate. 

The history of the communities of Pennsyl- 
vania affords a convenient initiation into much 
of the complex religious and ecclesiastical his- 
tory of Europe. Penn brought the Quakers 
and other fine English stock from the middle 
and north of En^jland for reasons that eo to 
the very heart of the English life of the seven- 
teenth century. A little later the Protestant 
Germans of the Palatinate came in great num- 
bers, impelled by motives to understand which 
is to find oneself essentially comprehending 
the conditions of Church and State that so 
disturbed and harassed Western Europe for a 
long period. Thus, to study the great city of 
Philadelphia in its origins, its later accretions 
and its existing conditions, is to find inviting 
avenues leading into many fields of historical 
inquiry both of the new world and the old. 

What single spot could one find anywhere 



xxii Introduction 

that would more naturally stimulate the study 
of political and economic history in the nine- 
teenth century than old Castle Garden at the 
lower end of New York City, through which 
millions upon millions of immigrants have en- 
tered the Western world to find contentment 
and prosperity ? Many of these came from 
Ireland ; and the municipal life of New York 
City has been profoundly affected by that fact. 
To answer the question why these people left 
Ireland and, in leaving, why their destination 
was New York rather than some port in the 
British colonies, is to review the history of 
the Irish land system, the Irish Church and 
the political administration of Ireland for sev- 
eral generations. 

An enormous element of the present popula- 
tion of New York, as well as of the country at 
large, is made up of a comparatively recent 
German immigration, to understand which one 
must learn something of the German revolu- 
tionary movement of 1848, the growth of Ger- 
man militarism and the conditions under which 
educational progress in Germany has out- 
stripped the average material prosperity. Still 
more recently there has been a huge immigra- 
tion of Russian Jews, with local effects of a 



Introduction xxiii 

most marked character in the city of New 
York. To know why these Jews have come 
is to look into racial, political, and economic 
conditions throughout the great empire of the 
Czar. 

To study the main routes of communication 
in a recjion like our Middle States is to cfain an 
insight into the relations of physical conditions 
to historical development that will be of no 
little use in the study of other origins and 
remoter periods. It would be hard to exag- 
gerate the importance, for instance, of the part 
that the Hudson River has played in the his- 
tory of the Western Hemisphere since its 
discovery and settlement by the Europeans. 
The route by way of the Hudson, Lake 
George and Lake Champlain afforded in the 
early times the one interior passage to the 
St. Lawrence from the settlements on our 
seaboard. 

Much of the land adjacent to the river was 
granted in large tracts under the Dutch sys- 
tem to patroons, so called, who were virtually 
feudal lords. Upon some of these tracts there 
still survive various peculiarities of the feudal 
system of land tenure. To know something 
of what feudalism meant as respects the control 



xxiv Introduction 

of the land, the student might find a worse 
method than to trace back the history of one 
of these Hudson River estates to the period of 
the Dutch grant, in order to get so much nearer 
to the survivals of the mediaeval system in 
Europe. 

At the spot where I live on the Hudson, 
and where I am now writing, the environment 
is suofofestive of almost three centuries of 
American history. I look out upon the great 
stream which Hudson navigated in the Half 
Moon in 1609, and upon which sailing craft 
have been plying almost continually ever 
since. I see great steamers passing where 
Fulton first experimented with steam naviga- 
tion. The highway near by is the old Albany 
post-road, this immediate part of which was 
known as Edgar's Lane and was opened in 
1644. This morning I heard the pleasant 
notes of a coaching-horn, and looked out to 
see a stately four-in-hand on its way to the 
city, a forcible reminder of at least a century 
and a half of recrular mail coaching on that 
same road. My home is a part of what was 
the old Philipse manor ; and at Yonkers, a few 
miles below, one finds the manor-house, now 
in constant use as a municipal building. It 



Introduction xxv 

was partly built in 1682, and assumed its pres- 
ent dimensions in about 1745. 

On this very ground, and on the hills lying 
to the eastward, Washington's army was en- 
camped for a number of weeks in 1777, and 
near by is the well-preserved colonial house 
where Washington and Rochambeau sojourned 
for some time, and where the Yorktown cam- 
paign was planned. In the river at this point, 
on several occasions, the British frigates made 
appearance, the last of these being the final 
meeting between General Washington and 
General Sir Guy Carleton, in May, 1 783, on 
the suspension of hostilities. A few miles 
farther up the road one comes to the lane that 
leads to Washington Irving's " Sunnyside," 
with its tablet stating that the house was first 
built in the year 1650. 

With these older historical souvenirs in 
mind, I turn to the southward, and there, as a 
reminder that the current of American history 
flows on, and that our past is in no manner 
detached from the present and the future, I 
see, standing out in bold relief on the horizon, 
the tomb of General Grant, while anchored in 
the river lies the Olvmpia, the flag-ship of 
Admiral Dewey, just now returned from 



xxvi Introduction 

adventures as fraught with history-making- 
results as was the presence of Hudson's Half 
Mooji in this same river two hundred and 
ninety years ago. 

The historical significance of the Hudson 
might be illustrated in some such way at many 
another point upon its banks. The location 
of Albany is particularly to be noted as one 
evidently intended by nature for an important 
rendezvous. In the earlier period Albany and 
the Saratoga district, and certain points of ad- 
vantage in the Mohawk Valley, were of great 
strategic importance. They were natural 
gateways, which had to be held first against 
the Indians and Frenchmen, and afterward 
against the British. Their later importance 
has had to do with canals, railroads and the 
development of commerce. 

But of Albany it must be said that it has also 
the distinction of being one of the three or 
four chief law-makine centres of the EnMish- 
speaking world. In no other way has the 
State of New York exerted so wide an in- 
fluence upon the country at large as in the 
working out of laws and institutions which 
have been re-enacted almost without change 
by a great number of the other States of the 



Introduction xxvii 

Union. Thus Albany has been a great train- 
ing school in politics and legislation. 

Before the days of railroad building, the 
Erie Canal was the greatest undertaking that 
this country had witnessed in the improvement 
of its transportation facilities. This waterway 
connected the Great Lakes with the Atlantic 
by way of the Mohawk and Hudson valleys ; 
and amonor other results of a far-reachine 
nature there followed the development of the 
city of Buffalo, a commercial and manufactur- 
ing community founded in the opening years 
of the nineteenth century, and destined in the 
twentieth to achieve such growth and splendor 
as few men are yet bold enough to anticipate. 

We have seen in our generation fierce rivalry 
for the occupation of Khartoum, at the head of 
Nile navigation, with one expedition succeed- 
ing another until the final success of the 
English under General Kitchener. The pos- 
session of Khartoum was known to carry with 
it the control of the fertile Soudan beyond, as 
well as to affect the permanent mastery of the 
valley of the lower Nile to the Delta. In 
some such manner the French and English in 
the middle of the eighteenth century appreci- 
ated the strategic importance of the point at 



xxviii Introduction 

the junction of the Alleghany and the Monon- 
gahela rivers, where the Ohio took its start, 
and from which navigation was unobstructed 
all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. It was in 
large part the struggle for the site of Pitts- 
burgh that gave Washington the military train- 
ing and the large perception of the future of 
America that fitted him for his ^reat tasks of 
leadership. The development of Pittsburgh 
and the opening of the Ohio furnish most 
instructive and Interesting chapters in the 
history of our country. 

The quaint or curious or heroic beginnings 
must always have their fascination ; and it is 
likely enough that for a long time to come 
they will take a little more than their normal 
or proportionate share of the page of history. 
But real history is learning also to concern 
itself with other things. The story of Prince- 
ton, now so largely that of Revolutionary 
annals, will henceforth increasingly be the story 
of the life and work of a great university. 
That of Pittsburgh will become in expanding 
proportions the story of the development of 
the arts and crafts and of manufacturing in 
this country, and of the struggle of skilled la- 
bor for an ever-larger share in the advantages. 



Introduction xxix 

made possible by the enormous increase 
in the volume of production. The story of 
Philadelphia will, to an increasing extent, be 
that of the best housed and most contented of 
all the great communities in the world, full of 
evidences of private thrift and the domestic 
virtues, while exhibiting the paradox of a 
relatively low degree of efficiency in matters of 
common concern like municipal administration. 
The historic towns of the Middle States are 
now engaged in the making of history in ways 
very different from those of the Colonial and 
Revolutionary periods, but in ways certainly 
not less important. But their future will be 
the wiser and happier for a studious devotion 
to the records of their honorable past, and 
they cannot be too zealous in the perpetuation 
of the old landmarks. 




HISTORIC TOWNS OF 
THE MIDDLE STATES 



ALBANY 



'' T'his aiitieiit ami respectable city." 

( Washitigtoit, 1JS2. J 

Bv WALTON W. BATTERSHALL 

AL1)AN^', unlike the {proverbial happy wo- 
man, has not only age but a history. Its 
age is indicated in its claim to be the second 
oldest existing settlement in the original 
thirteen colonies. The claim is fairly sus- 
tained, but we must remember that the alleged 
discoveries and settlements of those nomadic 
times are a trifle equivocal. On the other 
hand, the historical significance of Albany is 
based on two untjuestioned facts : for a century 
it guarded the imperilled north and west fron- 

I 



2 Albany 

tiers of Anglo-Saxon civilization on the con- 
tinent ; for another century it has been the 
legislative seat of the most powerful State in 
the Republic. 

On the 19th of September, 1609, old style, 
the yacht Dc Halve Macn, six months from 
Amsterdam, in command of Henry Hudson, 
dropped anchor a few miles below the present 
site of Albany. Four days spent in the ex- 
change of civilities with the Indians and the 
taking of soundings from the ship's boat 
farther up the stream, convinced the specula- 
tive explorer that the beautiful river among 
the hills gave no promise of a water path to 
China, and the Half-Moon, freighted with wild 
fruits, peltries and pleasant impressions, turned 
her prow homeward. 

From the Dutch and also the Fnglish point 
of view, the English skipper of the Dutch ship 
had discovered the river. It appears however 
that in 1524 Verrazzano put a F'rench keel. La 
Daupliine, far up the same stream, to which 
he ofave the name La Grande, and, some time 
after, French fur traders built a rude cJidteau, 
or, as we would say, fortified trading-post, on 
Castle Island, just off the hills of Albany. But 
the France of Francis I. had no colonizing 



Albany 3 

ofrip. and La Nouvelle France was simply a 
name which stretched along the Atlantic sea- 
board on the P>ench charts of the sixteenth 
century. 

On the return of Henry Hudson, his dis- 
covery was claimed by his patrons, the Dutch 
East India Compan)-. They named the river 
the Mauritius' (Prince Maurice's River), and 
the outlying country, known as Nieu Neder- 
landt, had good report in Holland for its furs 
and friendly savages. 

The Amsterdam mercliants were alert, and 
other Dutch vessels, following in the wake of 
the Half-Moon, pushed up the river to the head 
of navigation. There they found on the west 
bank the Maquaas, or Mohawks, and on the 
east bank the Mahicans, or Mohegans, with 
whom they had profitable transactions. 

To consolidate and protect their ventures, 
a group of merchants petitioned the States- 
General of Holland for the exclusive privilege 
of traffic with the aborigines on the river. 
The elaborate map of Nieu Nederlandt which 
they presented with their petition was dis- 

' Subsequently the river bore the name of North River, to dis- 
tint^uish it from the Delaware, the South River of Nieu Neder- 
landt. In fact the fair stream has been rename<l as often as a 
Parisian street. .Mbany has shared the fate of the river. 



4. Albany 

covered in 1S41 in the royal archives at rfie 
Hi^Jc. JT-i i :.ics:r:i:'-e is now in the State 

' - - ■ ' - -<e for three years 

:6i=- tfie mined 

Castle - rr::. equipped 

: r. twx> c ^^arrisoaed with a dozen 

, - :o the Stadt- 

: : _ : _ . : Fort Nassau. 

This occupanc}- in force of Castle Island 
\ now called Van Rensselaer Island > was brief, 
:?r ihr ^ - - aiu<di fc«" 

- : r-^-reo^ and 

: - : -Jled a settle- 

ment. 

It £S an interestiag^ lact. i::i.: i-~r 'r^^-y oe 
the Hv-r-"~ --— — --^^ -- ----- ^ 

being: s^:: _ - .. ^^- 

y^^avr: Under the Xovember skies of 1620. 
that hi- rsscL with its valuable cargo of 

- ' - — -rom, for severs^ 

-. . _:---_ : ihe point of Cape 

Coc. C»li •iV'^vemor Bradford, with quaint 
speQino: a ^^- telLs the stcxy erf the 



'TfeC&asc SiisGaa^^K' acTicie sa' <MBt «f x.Sifi^<&ee. 




'^rM^^/' ^ 



>l' 






^1 





6 Albany 

to stande for y" southward (y" wind and weather being 
faire) to finde some place aboute Hudsons river for 
their habitation. But after they had sailed y' course 
aboute halfe v" day, they fell amongst dangerous shoulds 
and roring breakers, and they were so farr intangled 
ther with as they conceived them selves in great danger : 
(S: y' wind shrinking upon them withall they resolved to 
bear up again for the Cape." ' 

Thus Plymouth Rock became the intellec- 
tual door-stone of the New World, and the 
banks of the Hudson inherited one of the sad 
" might-have-beens " of history. However, 
Douglas Campbell, in his trenchant and dis- 
turbing book, TJic Puritan in Holland, Enoiand 
and America, has told us that the distinctive 
principles of our American social and political 
life show, on critical inspection, the Dutch 
hall-mark. 

The America of 162 1 was much more of a 
" dark continent " than the Africa of hfty years 
ago. The adjective applies both to the skin 
of the autochthons and the mind of the ex- 
plorers. In the commercial circles of Amster- 
dam, Nieu Nederlandt was supposed to be a 

' See ]iage 93, IJradford's History of Pliinoth Plautation. From 
the original manuscript, liostun, 1S98. This original MS. in the 
above year was transferred with appropriate ceremonies from the 
library of the Archiepiscopal Palace at Fulhani lo the archives of 
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 



Albany 7 

part of the West Indies. Therefore it was 
that the new company which was devised for 
its exploitation and chartered in the year 
mentioned, took the name of The Dutch West 
India Company. 

Under its auspices, in March, 1624, the ship 
Nieu Ncdcrlaiidt sailed from Amsterdam by 
the accustomed route of the Canary Islands 
for the Mauritius River. She carried thirty 
families, chiefl)' Walloons, refugees from Bel- 
gium who had settled in Holland, and a few 
Dutch freemen. Some of the families were 
landed on Manhattan Island, but the majority 
proceeded up the river and selected for their 
settlement the fat meadow on the west shore 
above Castle Island. Under the shadow of 
the clay hill on which the Capitol now lifts its 
masses of sculptured granite, they built rude 
huts sheathed in bark, and a little log fort 
which they named h'ort Orange. The Indians 
were friendly and eager to barter, and enthu- 
siastic reports were at once sent over to Hol- 
land, with corroborative otter and beaver skins. 

Two years after this settlement at I'^ort 
Orange, the Dutch West India Company pur- 
chased Manhattan Island from the Indians for 
sixt\- guilders in high-priced goods and, i)lant- 



8 Albany 

ing" a colony and fort on the south end of the 
island, brought up the population of Nieu 
Nederlandt to two hundred souls. The Com- 
pany, desiring to stimulate colonization, in 1629 
projected the manorial or patroon system ; a 
combination of feudal idea and Latin name, 
patroniis. Killiaen Van Rensselaer, one of the 
directors and a rich merchant of Amsterdam, 
at once obtained an extensive grant of land 
south of Fort Orange and, by the purchase of 
the land from the Indians and the planting of a 
colony, became the patroon of Rensselaerswyck. 
He never visited his "colonie," but before his 
death in 1646, he had sent from Holland over 
two hundred artisans and farmers, and included 
in his manor a territory forty-eight by twenty- 
four miles, and also another tract of sixty-two 
thousand acres. 

Thus Albany began with a Dutch imprint, 
w^hich to this day has given to the city its dis- 
tinctive mark. Forty years of Dutch sagacity 
and thrift rapidly developed the colonv. It 
was on the whole a prosperous period, enlivened 
by chronic disputes between the garrison and 
the manor, and disquieting rumors regarding 
belligerent Indians and the I'rench. It throws 
on a small canvas sturdy personages and stir- 



Albany 9 

ring events. Brandt Van vSlechtenhorst, the 
stiff upholder of the manor claims against 
the doughty Pieter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch 
Director-General ; Domine Megapolensis, the 
first Dutch minister; and the flitting figure of 
the Jesuit missionary, Father Jogues with his 
hands mangled by the Mohawks and kissed by 
the Queen of France, would make any canvas 
picturesque. To take Washington Irving's 
delicious bit of humor too seriously shows a 
melancholy lack of humor. 

Certainly the Dutch burghers of Albany did 
not take very seriousl)- the English occupation 
of Nieu Nederlandt in 1664. The seizure was 
colored by an old claim of uncertain dimensions 
based upon the Cabot discoveries, which for a 
long time had strained the relations between 
England and Holland concerning colonial mat- 
ters. The capitulation was bloodless, and to 
Albany it brought little change, save that the 
English flag, in place of the Dutch, fluttered 
over the ramparts of l-'^)rt Orange, which took 
the name of Fort Albany in commemoration of 
the Scotch title of the Duke of York, the new 
lord of the province. The great manorial 
grant was confirmc-d, and in all its habits ot 
thouirht and life the colon\' remained Dutch. 



lo Albany 

The happiest change and perhaps the most 
startUng shock came from the fact that the 
Duke of York, bigot as he was. broke the tra- 
dition of the period and introduced in his 
province rehgious toleration. 

The English came, but the Dutch remained. 
The old Holland stock on the bank of the Hud- 
son kept its root in the soil and has made vital 
contributions to the American hybrid, which 
have had scant recognition in our popular his- 
tories. The fact is. the Dutch were not given 
to writing- books. They had fought for their 
religion and motherland, and had held them 
both against the assault of a powerful foe. but 
the recital of the story they left to the more ex- 
pert tongues and more eloquent pens of Eng- 
lishmen. Their type of character and social 
usage has proved its vigor and worth by its 
quiet persistence and dominance in New York 
life of to-day. In old Albany, even under Eng- 
lish rule, ideas and customs which had their 
birth behind the dykes of Holland were con- 
spicuously in the ascendant. 

Albany became a city in i6S6 by a iudicious 
charter granted by Governor Dongan. A dia- 
gram in the Rev. John Miller's Description of 
tJu Proi'itu'c and City of Xcu York, published 



w 




iM^, 



d iL^ax^^^jSL^^f^JMJxaji^p:^^^ 



:3r^ =^-— -- 



E 



PLAN OF ALBANY, 1695. 



12 Albany 

in London, 1695, gives us an idea of tlie new- 
born city. It consisted of about a hundred 
houses surrounded by a stockade, wliich was 
pierced to the nortli and soutli by narrow gate- 
ways. Above the stockade the most conspicu- 
ous objects were tlie pyramidal roof of the 
Dutch church at the foot of Jonker Street (now 
State Street), surmounted by three small 
cannon, and, on the eminence at the upper 
end of the street, the bastions of Fort Frederick, 
which had inherited the responsibilities and 
honors of the dismantled F"ort Orange. 

For about forty years after the peaceful 
seizure by the English, the old Dutch church, 
where the prosperous burghers worshipped, 
and a Lutheran church of somewhat intermit- 
tent life but hospitable to outsiders sufficed for 
the religious needs of the city. The officers of 
the garrison, however, and probably most of the 
soldiers were Church of England men. There 
was much in the service of the Dutch Church 
of that day which must have suggested pleasant 
reminiscence. Christmas, Easter and Whit- 
sunday were festivals brought from Hol- 
land, and were duly celebrated in the church 
and at the fireside. Oueerly enough, in the ac- 
counts of Pieter Schuyler, the deacon of the 



Albany 13 

Dutch church in t6cS3 and the first mayor of the 
city, we read that "the T3th of January was 
observed as a day of fasting and pra)'er, to di- 




OLD DUTCH CHURCH, ERECTED IN 1715 ON SITE OF ORIGINAL 
CHURCH ERECTED IN 1656. 



vert God's heavy judgment from falling on the 
EngHsh nation for the murder of King Charles, 
m.artyr of blt;ssed memory," and that the ex- 
penses therefor were seventeen guilders. 

i)Ut the thet)logical coin of the S\no(l of 
Dort, whether acceptable or not to the l^ng- 



14 Albany 

lish, was more or less inaccessible, being hid in 
the napkin of the Dutch language. Evidently 
there was need of an English house of worship 
in Albany. In 1714, therefore, Governor 
Hunter issued letters patent granting a plot of 
ground in Jonker Street below the fort for a 
church and cemetery. The Common Council 
made protest. The point at issue was a ques- 
tion, not of doctrine, but of municipal rights. 
They issued notice to suspend the laying of the 
foundations. They arrested the workmen. They 
petitioned the Governor. They sent a mes- 
senger by express in a canoe to New York, — 
a journey in those days of such magnitude that 
the church was well under way by the time the 
return voyage was accomplished. Despite all 
obstacles, the work went on and in the course 
of a year the first English church west of 
the Hudson was built. The two churches, 
the Dutch at the foot and the English at the 
head of State Street, were the chief ecclesias- 
tical landmarks of eighteenth-century Albany. 
Like rocks in a stream, they stood in the broad 
thoroughfare and preserved the magnificent 
approach to the future Capitol. 

Little as it was, Albany was the nest of im- 
portant events and a maker of history in those 




ti 







5 £ 



•.V.3'- 



"^m. 



M 



^ 



I 6 Albany 

troublous clays. Second to New York in 
size and resources, it served as a wary sentinel 
and tremulous alarm-bell to the exposed prov- 
ince. For well-nigh a century, all beyond it 
to the west and north, except the hamlet of 
Schenectady and the French settlements on 
the St, Lawrence, was wilderness and savages. 
It occupied a post of the gravest peril and re- 
sponsibility. We get a glimpse of the situa- 
tion and of the current history in the scene on 
that Sunday morning, the 9th of February, 
four years after the granting of the charter, 
when Svmon Schermerhoorn, shot throuorh the 
thigh, told at the north gate of the stockade 
his breathless story of the night attack and the 
horrible massacre at Schenectady. 

Between the hostile French in Canada and 
the little frontier city on the Hudson roamed 
the tribes of the Iroquois confederacy, upon 
whose friendship and fealty in large measure 
hung the destiny of the English possessions. 
The stockade, thirteen feet high, would have 
been ot little account it that living bulwark of 
savage allies had yielded to the arms or the 
bribes of the French. That the bulwark did 
not yield, that the fealty of the Indians was 
won and. through ever)" peril, kept unbroken, 



Albany 17 

was owing to the sag-acity and honorable deal- 
ing of the government and burghers of Albany. 
The House of J\-ace — this is the name which 
the Mohawk sachem, at one of the council-fires, 
gave to the Albany of those olden days, and, 
in the graphic phrase of his Indian oratory, he 
pictured at a stroke its political value and place 
in history ; for there, b\- repeated formal trea- 
ties and habitual friendly intercourse, were 
riveted the " Covenant Chains " which made 
the confederation of the Six Nations tlie guard- 
ians of the feeble province. 

There is a scene in The History of New York, 
by William Dunlap, which is illustrative. The 
date is i 746 and the central figure is the cele- 
brated Col. William Johnson, Indian agent, 
whom George II. made a "baronet of Great 
Britain." 

W'licn the Indians came near the town of Albany on 
the 8th of August, Mr. Johnson put himself at the head 
of the Mohawks, dressed and painted as an Indian war- 
captain. The Indians followed him painted for war. 
As they passed the fort, they saluted by a running fire, 
which the governor answered hy cannon. The chiefs 
were afterwards received in the fort-hall and treated to 
wine. A good deal of jjrivate manoeuvring with the in- 
dividual sachems was found necessary to make them de- 
clare for war with France before a jiublic council was 



1 8 Albany 

held. The Iroquois took to the 23d of the month for 
deliberation, and then answered, the governor being 
present." 

During the French wars, Albany, from a mil- 
itary point of \ie\v, was probably the most 
animated spot on the continent. It was the 
storehouse for munitions of war and the ren- 
dezvous for the troops. English regulars and 
provincial militia swarmed in and about the 
city. After the unsuccessful campaigns of 
1756 and 1757, the town was tilled with refu- 
gees, reciting the slaughter of the garrison at 
Fort William Henr)-, and the murder and havoc 
wrought by the Indians in pay of the French. 
Hundreds of loyal Indians, with their squaws 
and papooses, encamped under the stockade. 
The houses and barns were filled with wounded 
soldiers brought from the seat of war. In the 
pauses of the campaigns, notwithstanding the 
horrible rumors and actual disasters, the " dan- 
gerously accomplished" English officers made 
merry life in old Albany, picturesque details 
of which are given in that charming chronicle 
of colonial da\'s. Memoirs of an American 
Lady (Mrs. Philip Schuyler), by Mrs. Grant 
of Laggan. 

In the opening of the campaign of i 758 there 



Albany 19 

was grief and consternation in the province. 
Tidings came that Lord Viscount Howe had 
been killed in a skirmish on the march against 
Fort Ticonderoga. The body of the l)rilliant 
soldier was brought to Albany b)' liis friend. 
Captain Philip Schuyler, and was buried l)e- 
neath the chancel of the Eno;lish church. The 
stone recently unearthed in the village of Ticon- 
deroga, which bears the inscription, evidently 
scratched by a knife or bayonet, Mem of Lo 
Howe killed TroiLt Brook, probably markt;d 
the spot where Lord Howe fell. There is 
abundant evidence that his body now lies be- 
neath the vestibule of St. Peter's Church, The 
Church Book of the parish contains the follow- 
ing entr)- : //Ji?, Sept. ^th. To cash Rt J or 
ground to lay the Body of Lord how & Pall 

/5.6.O. 

In the following year, the fateful victory of 
Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham gave Canada 
to England and ended the hard-fought duel 
between the Latin and the Anglo-Saxon for 
the sovereignty of the continent. 

Some years before this, the Stadt Huys, the 
old City Hall of Alban). was the scene of a 
significant cx'cnt whicli was the preUuU' of one 
still more momentous. There in 1 754 Com- 



20 Albany 

missioners from the several provinces convened 
to renew the " Covenant Chain " with the Six 
Nations, and to discuss the best methods for 
uniting and defending the colonial interests. 
The foremost spirits and political prophets of 
the colonies composed the assembly. Numer- 
ous Indian sachems, with their stately bearing 
and barbaric splendor, decorated the scene of 
the deliberations. The " Plan " adopted by 
the convention was not accepted by the Crown, 
but it was the first attempt to articulate the 
idea of a colonial union, and it bore two names, 
Benjamin Franklin and Stephen Hopkins, 
which in due time were afifixed to the Declara- 
tion of Independence. 

Before the lightning tiashed in the volley at 
Lexington, there were centres of influence 
throughout the colonies breeding storm. Al- 
bany was one of them. The heart of the old 
Dutch town was fired with the indignations 
and enthusiasms of the time. There were 
tories of course, but the temper of the city and 
the attitude of those who controlled the situa- 
tion are indicated by the fact that, when the 
Province of New York had fairly opened the 
fight, the old fort on the hill was extemporized 
into a tory jail. 



Albany 21 

As early as November, i;;4. the frccliolders 
of the city appointed a Connnittcc of Safety 
and Correspondence, which proved a \i5^or- 
ous agent in propao^ating the war spirit and 
furnishino- men and mone)' for the Continental 
army. Idle following names appear on its 
Hsts : John Barclay, Chairman, Jacob C. Ten 
Kyck, Henr)' I. Bogert, Peter Silvester, Henry 
Wendell, V^olkert V. Douw, John Bay, Gysbert 
Marselis, John R. Bleecker, Robert Yates, 
Stephen De Lance)^ Abraham Cuyler, John 
H. Ten Eyck, Abraham Ten Broeck, Gerret 
Lansingh, Jr., Anthony E. Bratt, Samuel 
Stringer, Abraham Yates, Jr., and Cornelis 
van Santvoordt. In the records of the com- 
mittee occurs this significant minute : " Pur- 
suant to a resolution of yesterda)', the 
Declaration of Independence was this da\- read 
and published at the Cit\- Hall to a large Con- 
course of the Inhabitants of this City and the 
Continental Troops in this City and received 
witli aj)plause and satisfaction." 

At the beginning of, anil all tlirough the 
struggle for independence, Alban\' was a stra- 
tegic point of the utmost im])ortance. Phe war- 
office in London and the British commanders 
in the field rccognizcxl that it was the; kc\- to 



2 2 Albany 

the situation in the north. There is a passage 
in the oration of Governor Seymour at the 
Centennial Commemoration at Schuylerville, 
the actual scene of Burorovne's surrender, 
which condenses and interprets one of the 
most important chapters in the history of the 
Revolution. 

" It was the design of the British government in the 
campaign of 1777 to capture the centre and stronghold 
of this commanding system of mountains and valleys. 
It aimed at its very heart, — the confluence of the Hudson 
and the Mohawk. The fleets, the armies, and the savage 
allies of Britain were to follow their converging lines to 
Albany, and there strike the decisive blow." 

As sometimes happens, the blow struck 
the striker. Col. Philip Schuyler, the youno;- 
officer who brought the body of Lord Howe 
to its burial, was an- ardent patriot and the 
most distinguished citizen of Albany. On the 
recommendation of the Provincial Conofress of 
New York, he had been appointed by the 
Continental Congress a major-general in the 
armies of the United Colonies and had assumed 
command of the Northern Department. He 
was displaced in favor of General Gates, but 
he retained the confidence of Washino-ton, and 
it was he who planned and conducted the 



Albany 



campaign which resulted in the victory of 
Bemis Heiij^htsand the surrender of Burgo)ne. 
This event broke the formidable menace that 
hung over the 
province and the 
colonial cause. 
The defeated 
British general 
found himself in 
the hands of a 
courteous foe, 
and for several 
months he med- 
itated and mit- 
igated his dis- 
aster amid the 
elegant h o s p i- 
talities of the 
Schuyler m a n- 
sion in Ali^any. 

In 1797, "this antient and respectable city 
of Albany" (to quote the courtly compliment 
of Washington) became the capital of the 
State. At the close of the Revolution. New 
York had not yet determined its seat of gov- 
ernment. From 1777 to 1796 it peregrinated 
between Kingston. Poughkeepsie, Albany and 




MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP SCHUYLER. 
Ifrom a painting by col. trumbulu) 



24 Albany 

the city of New York. Not until the twen- 
tieth session of the Legislature was the long 
dispute settled. The geographical advantages 
of Albany tinally carried the day, and for the 
last hundred years the site of the frontier fort 
has been a political arena and an illustrious 
seat of legislative and judicial power. 

The Albany of " modern times," as the 
phrase is understood in our American life in 
which everything is new except human nature, 
has preserved few of the ancient landmarks. 
The only souvenirs are the bronze tablets 
which were devised at the Bicentennial in 
1886, and which now designate tlie historic 
sites in the city. If one, reverent of ancient 
and vanished things, make pilgrimage to the 
tablet near the curb on the lower edge of the 
Capitol Park (a block above the site of P^ort 
Frederick), to the one on the corner of Broad- 
way and Steuben Street (the site of the north- 
east gate), and to the one near the curb on 
lower Broadway two blocks from State Street 
(the site of the southeast gate), he will de- 
fine (piite accurately the girdle of the pali- 
sadocs which protected old Albany. 

If he pass the memorial of the northeast 
gateway, a place of memorable outgoings and 



Albany 



25 



inconiinLi's, and continue up P)roa(l\vay al)out 
three (juarters of a mile, he will hnd a bronze 
tablet bearino- the inscription : " Opposite 
\'an Rensselaer Manor-House. Erected 1765. 
Residence of the 
Patroons. This 
spot is the site of 
the First Manor- 
House." It was 
an u n p r e t e n - 
tious one-story 
lniildin<4- of Hol- 
land brick, half 
fortress and half 
dwellins^. T h e 
final Man o r- 
House, on the 
other side of the 
road, was a struc- 
ture of another 
fashion. At the 

time of its erection, i 765, it was considercnl tiie 
handsonK:st residence in the colonies. Thither 
Stejihen \'an Rensselaer I)rouoht his youn^- 
britle. Catherine, daughter of Philip Pivinoston. 
and his babe, who became Cieneral \'an Rensse- 
laer. It stood amid the drooping' elms ot a large 




STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER. 

(FROM A PAINTING BY EZRA AMES. 



2b 



Albany 



park and was decorated with a taste and luxun* 
startling to the period. In 1843 the building 
was enlarged and enriched by the elder L p- 
john. Once a stately mansion, the scene of 




-:;.N5Stl_A£ft MA,NUK-"Ou6£, 



Splendid hospitalities, it has shared the Ameri- 
can fate of obstructive antiquities in thriving 
towns. The railroad and the " lumber district " 
crowded and finally strangled it. For several 
years it stood empt\' and dismantled, and ob- 
viously had outlived both its beautv' and its 
ust:. In 1S93 the stone and timbers were 
transported to the Campus of Williams Col- 



Albany 



27 



lec'-e, where they were reconstructed into the 
SiTrma Phi Society building, which perpetuates 
a remote suggestion of the famous Manor- 
House. 




SCHUYLER MANSION, 1760. 

In the southern part of the city, on CHnton 
Street, is a bronze tablet which tlesignates the 
sister of the Manor-House, the Schuyler man- 
sion, built by the wife of General Philip Schuy- 
ler while he was in England in i 760. 'I his 
historic relic stands on a plateau above the 



28 Albanv 

street, surrounded by a remnant of the original 
garden, but the broad avenue, shaded by elms, 
which once gave approach to the mansion 
from the river, is overgrown with houses. 
Though used at present as an orphan asylum 
under the charge of the Order of St. Francis 
de Sales, it retains substantially its original 
features. It is a dignitied and spacious house ; 
not remarkable architecturallv, but fraorant 
with histor}". Here Burgoyne enjoyed his 
imprisonment. Here W ashington, Lafayette, 
Count de Rochambeau, Baron Steuben. Ben- 
jamin Franklin. Charles Carroll of CarroUton. 
Aaron Burr, and other notable men of old 
were entertained. Here Alexander Hamilton 
and Elizabeth Schuyler were married. Decem- 
ber 14, I 7S0. Besides famous guests and wed- 
dings, its chief feature of historic interest is 
the staircase, apropos of which, we quote from 
Mr. Marcus Reynolds's article on The Colonial 
Buildings of Rctissclacrzi'yck in The Archiftc- 
tiiral Record of 1895. 

" Here is shown the famous tomahawk mark. Iii 
1781 a plan was made to capture General Schuyler and 
take him to Canada. A party of tories, Canadians and 
Indians surrounded the house for several days, and at 
length forced an entrance. The family took refuge in the 



Albany 29 

iipper story, leaving behind in their haste the youngest 
member of the family, Margaret Schuyler, afterward the 
wife of the jjatroon. An elder sister going to rescue the 
infant, was pursued by an Indian, who threw his toma- 
hawk at her as she fled up the stairs. 'I'he weajjon en- 
tered the haiul-rail near the newel, and the mark is still 
shown, which would be conclusixe evidence if the same 
story were not toUl of the (ilen house in Schenectady, 
the only house unburnt in the massacre of 1690." 

With all its historic associations, All)an\- is 
not conspictious for the scenery it has fur- 
nished for the enchantments of poetry and ro- 
mance ; still it is not altogether destitute of 
literary honors. Its colonial life figures in the 
Saiaiis^oc of the great Fenimore Coojx'r and 
in Harold Frederick's /// l/ic Va//cv. The 
Normanskill, wliich tumbles into the; lltidson 
at the south end of the cit\-, Hows through the 
\'ale of Tawasentha, the scene of Longfellow's 
Hiawatha. The hills and forests about the city 
suggested man\- a delicate detail in tlie wood- 
land rhythms of Alfred Street, who made his 
homt; and l)in'ial-place in Albany. Its old Hutch 
life with its sedate charm has been pictured b)- a 
li\-ing Albanian, Leonard Kip ; and probably 
the house still stands on Pearl Street or Broad- 
way, in which I lcm'\- bnues lotuid the charming 
'•'irl who stood for his /\>r/riu'r of cn Ladx. 



30 Albany 

On the east bank of the Hudson, in old 
Greene Bosch, opposite the city, decays the dis- 
honored ruin of Fort Crailo. The date, more 
or less mythical, is 1642. It was the head- 
quarters of General Abercrombie, and in the 
garden back of the house a derisive British 
surgeon, Dr. Stackpole, composed the immor- 
tal jingle of Yankee Doodle. If, in 1800, one 
stood on the southeast corner of State and 
North Pearl Streets, opposite the famous elm 
which Philip Livingston planted in 1735, his 
eye glancing up the street to the north would 
be arrested b)' a picturesque relic of Dutch 
Albany, the Vanderheyden Palace. Of course 
it has joined the departed, but its ghost appears 
in Washington Irving's Braccbridge Hall, and 
its old weather-vane now swings above the 
porch of Sunnyside. 

Some of the colonial structures were fine 
and famous in their day, but in truth, in our 
Amercan towns, imposing architecture is a 
thing of recent date. Few cities give more 
favorable sites for architectural effects tlian 
the three hills of Albany. It is not too much 
to say that the wealth and taste of its citizens 
have conspired with its peculiar advantages of 
position. The architecture of Albany has an 



Alb:in)- 31 

exceptional value. The City Hall, with its Ro- 
man(!sque doorways and majestic campanile, 
is a fine specimen of the great Richardson. 
The Albany City Savings Bank, recently con- 



Y 



ii-r..J 




d 



Bamannm. 



WEST SIDE OF PEARL ST. FFf '.• ■Mi TO MAIDEN LANE, 1814. 

I. VANOERHEYOEN HOUSE. 2. PRUYN HOUSE. 3. DR. WOODRUFF'S HOUSE. 
(from a WATER-COLOR SKETCH BY JAMES EIGHTS.) 

structed, is a classical gem, inadequately set. 
hut cut by a master hand. Its Corinthian 
monoliths and graceful dome satisfy the eye, 
and the whole structure is a suggestive instance 
of what trade can do in the interests of art. 

The four examples of ecclesiastical archi- 
tecture of niore than local interest are the 



32 Albany 

North Dutch Church, an exceptionally ^ood 
specimen of the style which obtained in the 
be^inninuof the century ; the Cathedral of the 
Immaculate Conception, with its lofty double 
spires emphasized by the site, and its spacious 
interior treated with taste and dignity ; St. 
Peter's Church, with its noble lines, artistic win- 
dows and hnel)- detailed tower, — " one of the 
richest specimens of French Gothic in this 
countr\' "' ; and the Cathedral of All Saints, 
whose unfinished exterior encloses columnar 
effects and a choir-vista which remind one of 
an impressive mediaeval interior anci give the 
edifice a distinctive place among the churches 
of America. 

These architectural monuments, however, 
and the city itself are overshadowed by the 
new Capitol. This massive structure, since its 
corner-stone was laid on the 24th of June, 1871, 
has absorbed over twenty millions of dollars. 
The enormous ])ulk, the difficult foundations, 
the obdurate granite, the elaborate sculptures, 
the mistakes and afterthoughts, sufficiently ac- 
count for the mone}-. The old Capitol, which 
stood in front of the southeast corner, well- 
nigh could be tucked into one of its great pavil- 
ions. The edihce is of such cost, size, and 







1 \ 



m ■( 



:4! 



34 Albany 

architectural importance, that one discusses it 
as he mii^ht discuss Strasbur^^ Cathedral or 
the weather. Claiming simply the freedom of 
personal impression, one may say that its 
weakest feature is the eastern facade, which 
gives an inadequate suggestion of the size of 
the building and moreover is dwarfed by the 
projecting mass and lofty ascent of the gigan- 
tic stairway. He may also say that the 
Capitol declares its highest points of architec- 
tural interest in the constructive and decorative 
treatment of the interior. 

The edifice has been built with the advantage 
of large ideas and limitless resources, and the 
disadvantaofe of fluctuatino- ideas and a sue- 
cession of architects. These facts have left 
their imprint on the structure but, with all that 
can be said in criticism of details and of unused 
possibilities, it can fairly be ranked among the 
great buildings of modern times. 

As one approaches Albany, the colossal bulk 
of the Capitol tlirust against the sky seems to 
dominate the city as the great cathedrals of 
Europe dominate the towns that have grow^n 
or decayed under their shadow. But there are 
other structures and artistic things, represent- 
ing the local life, that are worthy of remark. 



Albany 



JD 



The State Museum of Natural I listor)-, in 
Geological Hall, a block below the Capitol, 
vies with the State Library as a credit to the 
State and the haunt of the student. It is one 
of the laro-est and best arranijed museums in 
the country, and its collection of the paleozoic 
rocks of New York, which fiirure so largely in 
the nomenclature of geology, is a monument 
to an eminent name in the scientific world, 
James Hall, late State Geologist. 

Near the Capitol Park is the Albany Acad- 
emy, in whose 
upper rooms 
Henry and Ten 
E)ck d e m o n - 
strated the elec- 
trical facts 
which were ap- 
plied by Morse. 
Up the hill, on 
the southwest 
corner of the 
city, stand the; 
pavilions of the 
n e w Hospital, 
built in I 899, and 
the Dudley Observatory, of note in the stellar 




JOHN V. L. PRUYN. 



36 Albany 

world. On Washinorton Avenue is Harmanus 
Bleecker Hall, built from the fund held in trust 
for more than half a century by Chancellor 
Pruyn and Judoe Parker. On State Street 
opposite the Capitol is the building- of the 
Historical and Art Society, which, though 
new-born, has already done valuable work in 
collectino- sequestered relics of history. 

Under the elms in Washinoton Park are 
two fine bronzes : Caverley's statue of Robert 
Burns and Rhind's statue of Moses at the 
Roek of Horeh. Fortunately one of the earli- 
est and two of the noblest creations of the 
sculptor Palmer are in the city of his home : 
his Faith at the Cross, his Livingston, and his 
Angel of the Resurrection. 

Albany the Old has become Albany the 
New. In many ways the new is more energetic 
and more splendid than the old. The town is 
larsfe enough to show the characteristic features 
of our American life in its more sensitive and 
vigorous centres, and small enough to retain 
local color and distinctive traits. It is self- 
centred, believes in itself, and has the instinct 
to discern and the habit of demanding the 
best things. It is a place where the finest 
flavors of the old life linger in and temper the 



Albany 



^^y 



broader spirit and more- robust movement of 
the new life ; a place that perpetuates its tra- 
ditions of social eleo:ance and hospitality ; a 
place, too, that has been the cradle and home 
of men of commanding force, who have con- 
tributed to the highest life of the nation and 
have left their names on enduring structures of 
thought and art and economic organization. 

The city lies at the intersection of the great 
thoroughfares of traffic and travel in the rich- 
est and most densely populated portion of the 
republic. Its facilities for production and dis- 
tribution may give it in the future an enor- 
mous industrial development. This fortune 
is not unlikely, but, to those who estimate 
in large ways the values of life, it cannot 
heighten the beauty or deepen the charm ot 
the Albany of to-day. 




SEAL OF ALBANY. 







SARATOGA 

THESTRUGGLE FOR THE GREAT WATERWAYS 

By ELLEN HARDIN WALWORTH 

THERE are names which are more than 
famous — they have a distinct individuahty ; 
their sound to the ear or appearance on the page 
arrests attention, arouses interest, and presents 
a clear picture to the mind. Such a name is 
Saratoga, with its romantic record, its pictur- 
esque scenery, and its beautiful village, — the 
" Queen of Spas." Nature has furnished Sara- 
toga with a regal setting on the lower spurs of 
the Adirondack Mountains, the last elevations 
of the Palmertown range, on the edge of the 
world's first continent. 

Here where the Laurentian rocks stand out 
boldly over the sands of the old Silurian sea, 
and where the might)- \vaterwa\s sweep down 
from the great northern gulf southwanl, and 
from the great northwestern lakes eastward, lies 

39 



40 



"^ 



^a ^oFin:^- 



water- 



centuries the iH^e^t war-padis of the 




r scars d: w^r. , 



of the fine of forts exteadiiig^ frosn the Indiaa 



Saratoi^a 4 ' 

carrying-place at Fort Edward down on cither 
bank of the Hudson to old Saratoga, now 
Schuylerville, where the great monument com- 
memorative of Revolutionary victory marks 
the national character of that struggle, and 
where, eight miles below, at Bemis Heights, 
fourteen granite tablets, each a monument five 
or six feet in height, mark the fighting-ground. 
Through the Mohawk Valley are signs of the 
" Long House" of the Six Nations, of massa- 
cres and battles, that tell their story of three 
centuries. 

The story of Saratoga cannot easily be 
limited to Saratoga Springs, although it has 
fifteen thousand inhabitants who retain their 
quaintly rural government and cling to the 
appellation of " village." Village though it be, 
it is imposing with its stately hotels, spacious, 
streets, large business houses, many beautiful 
villas, fine public halls, handsome churches, and 
numerous valuable mineral springs ; which, like 
the residences, are set amid magnificent trees. 
forest pines and cultivated elms that rival the 
famous trees of New Haven. From the sur- 
rounding hills the village seems to nestle in the 
original wilderness. But it is always active, — 
in winter with its toboggan slide, snow-shoe 



4- Saratoga 

club, trottino- matches on the ice-bound lake, 
and snow-bound streets rolled to marble 
smoothness for gay and luxurious sleigh-rid- 
inof ; in summer, its brilliancy is often com- 
pared with that of ■ Paris. In the loss of the 
old-time social exclusiveness it has gained in 
cosmopolitan character and in the rich variety 
of its life and amusements. 

In considering the story of Saratoga, we 
cannot confine our attention to the town of 
Saratoga Springs, with its sharply defined 
boundaries and rectangular lines of political di- 
vision which mark the limit of the voters for su- 
pervisor at the annual town-meeting. But if we 
include the county in our narrative, then, in- 
deed, may we recall the vision which pre- 
sents the individuality of the name Saratoga. 
For Saratoga County is outlined by a great 
eastward and southern sweep of the Hudson 
River for seventy miles from its narrow gorge 
at Luzerne, where the wild savage chief of 
colonial days leaped across the mighty river to 
escape his pursuing foe, down over the pre- 
cipitous Palmer's Falls, and over the cavern- 
haunted Glen's Falls, and onward to old Fort 
Edward, where its waters turn shortly to the 
south and pursue their troubled way along the 



42 Saratoga 

club, trotting matches on the ice-bound lake, 
and snow-bound streets rolled to marble 
smoothness for gay and luxurious sleigh-rid- 
inof ; in summer, its brilliancy is often com- 
pared with that of • Paris. In the loss of the 
old-time social exclusiveness it has gained in 
cosmopolitan character and in the rich variety 
of its life and amusements. 

In considering the story of Saratoga, we 
cannot confine our attention to the town of 
Saratoga Springs, with its sharply defined 
boundaries and rectangular lines of political di- 
vision which mark the limit of the voters for su- 
pervisor at the annual town-meeting. But if we 
include the count)' in our narrative, then, in- 
deed, may we recall the vision which pre- 
sents the individuality of the name Saratoga. 
For Saratoga County is outlined by a great 
eastward and southern sweep of the Hudson 
River for seventy miles from its narrow gorge 
at Luzerne, where the wild savage chief of 
colonial days leaped across the mighty river to 
escape his pursuing foe, down over the pre- 
cipitous Palmer's P^alls, and over the cavern- 
haunted Glen's Falls, and onward to old Fort 
Edward, where its waters turn shortly to the 
south and pursue their troubled way along the 




SARATOGA BATTLE MONUMENT, SCHUYLERVILLE, N, Y. 
43 



44 Saratoga 

"hillside country," which received here its 
Indian name, " Se-rach-ta-o^ue," which means 
"hillside country of the great river.'" It is 
also said that in the Indian language Sa-ragh- 
to-ga means the "place of the swift water," in 
allusion to the rapids and falls that are in con- 
trast with the "still water" a few miles below. 
Thence the Hudson flows on until it receives 
the four sprouts or mouths of the Mohawk 
River, which spreads out from the precipitous 
falls at Cohoes. This great intersecting west- 
ern valley separates the northern from the 
southern highlands of New York, and is. like 
the orreat northern vallev, a natural highway 
and thoroughfare. In the angle formed by 
the junction of these two long, deep valleys or 
passes through the mountain ranges, " in the 
angle between the old Indian war-trails, in 
the angle between the pathwa)s of armies, in 
the angle between the great modern routes of 
travel, in the angle formed by the junction of 
the Mohawk and Hudson rivers," is Saratoga 
County, the Saratoga of histor\- and romance. 
Not only the stealthy tread of the Iroquois 
sped over these hills, not only the swift canoe 
of the Algonquin shot over these streams, but 
also the disciplined armies of France and of 



Saratoga 45 

Eni4:land marched and countermarched, foii,i^dit 
by day and bivouacked at night on this ground, 
from the time that Hendnck Hudson opened 
the lower valley of the Hudson River, and 
Samuel Champlain discovered the broad lake 
that bears his name, until the Revolutionary 
period closed. 

While Jamestown was still struggling for 
existence, and Plymouth Bay was still un- 
known, the contest had already begun in the 
northern valley of the Hudson which initiated 
its long service to the progress of the western 
world. This remarkable triangle, the Saratoga 
and Kay-ad-ros-se-ra of the Indian occupation, 
and the Saratoga County of the present time 
was, like Kentucky, "the dark and bloody 
ground." the hunting- and hshing-place of the 
Five Nations on the south, and their enemies, 
the Algonquins, on the north. Here each 
summer, in search of fish and game, they built 
their hunting lodges on Saratoga Lake, called 
by the Dutch, who believed it to be the " head- 
waters" of the- Hudson, "Aqua Capita." 
Every season brought conflict between the sav- 
age tribes, and later the French, year after year, 
marched down from Quebec and Montreal to 
intimidate their unceasing foes on the Mohawk. 



46 Saratoj^ci 



&' 



In 1642. and again in 1645, the Iroquois in 
retaliation hastened along the old war-trail at 
the foot of Mount McGregor and returned 
each time laden with their tortured captives, 
the French prisoners and their Indian friends. 
The two famous expeditions of Courcelle, 
Governor of Canada, and of Lieut. -Gen, de 
Tracy, made their way in 1666 through the 
valley ; first on snow-shoes, to starvation and 
despair — and again with the buoyant tread of 
a victorious legion. In 1689 the Iroquois fol- 
lowed the old trail on their way to that mas- 
sacre of Montreal which emphasized what is 
justly called the "heroic age" of that poetic 
and devoted settlement. The French and 
Algonquins again in 1690 bivouacked at these 
springs as they descended to the cruel massacre 
of Schenectady. And in the same year the 
English, led by Fitz John Winthrop, made a 
fruitless march over the historic war-path. 

The French, urged by Frontenac, came down 
the valley in 1693, destro)ed the castles of the 
Mohawks, and started on their return with 
three hundred prisoners. The news created 
intense excitement through the whole Prov- 
ince ot Xew \'ork. Governor Fletcher hur- 
ried up trom Xew York City, Major Peter 



4^ Saratoga 

Schuyler hastily gathered three hundred white 
men and three hundred savages for defence, 
and was joined by Major Ingoldsby from 
x\lbany with an additional force. Coming 
along the old trail, the French and Indians 
halted with their captives about six miles 
north of the village of Saratoga Springs, at a 
point near Mount McGregor at King's Station. 
The battle-ground lies on the terrace, which is 
distinct from the foothills of the mountains, 
and has long been known as the " old Indian 
burving-ground." On this plateau, so near 
the gay streets of Saratoga, the camp-fires of 
a thousand hostile men throwing up entrench- 
ments flared through the night. On the fol- 
lowing day the English sustained successfully 
three fierce assaults on their works, and the 
French, worn with the long journey, were glad 
to retreat in the darkness of a raging storm, 
as night fell on their wounded and captives. 

Again, during Queen Anne's War. begin- 
ning in 1 709, old Saratoga, which Hes at the 
mouth of the Fishkill, was so seriously threat- 
ened that Major Schuyler built a fort below 
the mouth of the Batten Kill. In 1731, the 
French built Fort Frederick at Crown Point. 
From this stronghold, during King George's 



Saratoi^a 49 

War, which l^ei^an in 1744. they swuni; their 
forces witli (leadl)- effect upon the Eng-hsh 
settlements. The forts at Saratocra were then 
rehttecl and nianncd, but not in time to pre- 
vent the terrible massacre of oltl Sarato^^-a 
in 1745. 

Histor)- has recorded and poctrx' suno' the 
woes of \\'\omini4- and of Cherry X'alley, but 
the silence ot the xir^in forest has encom- 
jjassed the trat^ic e\ents that occurred at 
Saratoga on the fatal morning of the 17th of 
November, tliirt)' )ears before the Re\olution. 

'■ Prol'ouml peace had reigned in the old \\ iiderness 
tor a generation, and the fertile soil had fdled the smiling 
land with fatness. Many dwellings and fruitful farms 
dotted the river hank ; long stables were lllled with 
sleek cattle, and around the mills were huge piles of tim- 
ber waiting the market down the ri\ er." 

The scowling- portholes ot the old Schti\ler 
mansion seemed to laugh between the tendrils 
of the creeping \ines. .Suddenlw in the carK- 
morning, the scene ot peace and jjrosperitv 
was changed to slaught<n-, pillage, and destruc- 
tion. Philip .Schuyler, the elder, was offered 
immimit\- in the midst of the fra\-, but he 
spurned .safety at thf e.Kj^ense of his neigh- 
bors, and was sliot to dcatli in his own doorwa\' 



Saratoga 



The houses and forts were burned to the 
grountl, the cattle killed or burned in their 

stalls, and only one 
or two inhabitants 
escaped to tell the 
tale. 

This war was a 
p r e 1 u d e to the 
French and Indian, 
or Seven Years' 
War, which, with 
its five campaio-ns, 
rag'ed continuously 
through the war- 
worn valle\' of the 
grand northern 
waterways. Nearly 
a century and a 
half of strugg'le, 
first of the French 
discoverers and 
missionaries w i t h 
the savages, and 
then of the French- 
men and Iroquois, 
and later the F^rench, the Indians, and the 
English, had proved the importance of this 




GENERAL PHILIP SCHUYLER. 

BRONZE STATUE IN NICHE OF SARATOGA MONUMENT, 
SCHUYLERVILLE, N. Y. 



Saratoga 5 1 

valley as the northern doorwa)- to the countr\-. 
Of the three expeditions hrst planned to be 
sent simultaneously against the French — one 
under Braddock against Fort Duquesnc, an- 
other under Shirley against Niagara, and an- 
other under Johnson against Crown Point, — 
the third was considered the most important. 

In August, Major-General William Johnson 
took command in person and pushed on to the 
outlet of Lake George, intending to build a 
fort at Ticonderoga as a defence au^ainst Crown 
Point, to which the French had extended their 
possessions in the last interval of peace. Be- 
fore his design could be accomplished, des- 
perate warfare disturbed the placid waters of 
the beautiful lakes and so discolored their out- 
lying waters that time has not yet effaced the 
name of " IMoody Pond." 

Abercrombie's campaign in i y^S was a fatal 
mistake. The brilliant hope inspirctl b\' his 
hne army of Regulars with their splendid ac- 
coutrements, his thousands of boats paraded 
on the broad lake with banners flying and 
strains of music imknowii in tlie wilderness, was 
turned to gloom when a few days later thi- boats 
returned laden with the dead and dying, and 
carrNiniT the bod\' of the beloved Lord Howe. 



52 Saratoga 

Again, in 1759, the war-trail of old Saratoga 
Avas trodden by an English army, twelve thou- 
sand strong, under the command of the suc- 
cessful Lord Amherst. In the autumn the 
final conflict came when the death of Wolfe 
sicrnalled the triumph of England, and the 




CONGRESS SPRING IN 1820. 

great waterways passed under the sovereignty 
of the Anglo-Saxons. 

For some years. Sir William Johnson suf- 
fered from the effects of a wound received in 
the hip during the war. In 1767. l^^i^ In^^ian 
friends told him about the "Great Medicme 
Waters" of Saratoga, and carried him by 
boat and on a stretcher to the m)sterious 



Saratoga 53 

spring^. 1 he waters proved so beneficial that 
he was al)le to return over the "carrying- 
place " unaided and on foot. The waters 
which he drank were taken from the High 
Rock Spring of Saratoga Springs. Once 
they overflowed the cone-like rock through 
which they now rise and from w^hich they 
are dipped, and the rock was gradual!)' de- 
posited and formed b)- the overflow. The 
process has lately been repeated l)y new 
springs like the Geyser and the Champion, 
which for some years threw the water several 
feet into the air, leaving a heavy cascade-like 
deposit about the opening. Gradually the wa- 
ters subsided, the geyser effect was lost, and 
like the High Rock Spring they have fallen 
below the level of the ground. 

In the year (1767) of Sir William John- 
.son's expedition, the old land troubles with 
the Six Nations were settled amicably at the 
Fort Stanwix conference, when- oxer three 
thousand red men met the English conunis- 
sioners. The complaints of alleged frauds 
in purchase and surveys included the Kayad- 
rossera patent, which covered 700,000 acres 
lying between the Hudson and the Mohawk.ob- 
tained by grant in i 703 and confirmed in i 708. 



54 Saratoga 

Yet quiet did not prevail. The restless 
spirits of the wilderness were stirred by their 
first political aspirations. The Schuylers, 
whose possessions extended over the old Sar- 
atoga hunting-ground, awoke the farmers to 
an interest in the burning questions of the 
day. Sloops sailing up the Hudson brought 
rumors of riots in New York City, and of the 
resistance offered by the Sons of Liberty to 
the execution of the Stamp Act. When news 
came that no good patriot would wear im- 
ported garments, the women redoubled their 
efforts to produce from spinning-wheel and 
loom the homespun fabric. As the King grew 
more determined, and the people learned more 
clearly what rights were theirs, the British sol- 
diers became violent and the patriots more 
indignant and outspoken. The first military or- 
der of the home government to put the forts at 
Crown Point and Ticonderoga on a war basis 
was quickly followed by the tramp of soldiers 
through the wilderness. The rumble of ar- 
tillery and of commissary wagons broke once 
more the stillness of the forest. The farmers 
who lived along the old war-trail revived by 
the evening fireside the stories of the French 
and Indian wars. The Indians, quick to dis- 






i^ i ^ 



il ,i^4'- > i i- 



I V 1 1 4 I - 1 -; = ; I s ?^ ]"^ 






• - -5 > = 













^iff ji^r|Vj||||i|y . 



c'. 







56 Saratoga 

cern the coming storm, began once more, un- 
der the intiuence of the Johnson famil)- (alhed 
to them through Brandt and his sister), to 
destroy property and massacre the unprepared. 
The settlers of the " long valley " were bear- 
ing at this time the brunt of the preliminary- 
warfare of the American Revolution. They 
met the issue bravely. While they fought, 
their wives and daughters gathered in the 
crops, melted into bullets the treasured pewter 
teapots and sugar-bowls, learned to shoot, to 
barricade their houses or their little forts, and 
to conceal themselves from prowling bands of 
Indians and savage Tories. It was then that 
the Royalist Governor Tryon, taking refuge on 
a war vessel, exclaimed. "The Americans from 
politicians are now becoming soldiers." Had 
he witnessed the courageous deeds ot the 
women of the great waterways, he would per- 
haps have added, " The women from house- 
keepers are becoming farmers and fighters." 

New anxieties arose in the Province of New 
York as rumors multiplied of the advance in 
stately procession of a new and splendid army 
of the British, recently arrived in Canada. 
down the old war-path through Champlain 
and Lake George on the wav to Alban\- to 











^ 




■A^J 




^ 




WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION, 1776. 

FROM TABLET ON SARATOGA BATTLE MONUMENT, SCHU YUERVILLE, N. Y. 



57 



58 Saratoga 

unite with the British wino- ascendine the 
Hudson River. Inspired by General Schuyler, 
commanding the American army, the farmers 
seized whatever lirearms they could find and 
hurried to his camp. The women of Albany 
hammered the leaden weights from the win- 
dows of their houses, moulded them into 
bullets, and urged on the men. The militia 
of New England, aroused by the invasion, 
came by hundreds and by thousands until the 
river hills were covered. The hasty breast- 
works planned by Kosciuszko were completed, 
and the rude recruits were hurriedly formed 
into resfiments and briofades. Gates, who 
superseded Schuyler, lay with his staff in the 
rear of the army, while Morgan with his 
riflemen held guard at the western extremity 
of the entrenched camp on the hills, with his 
headquarters at Xeilson's. This was the de- 
fensive camp ot the Americans at Bemis 
Heights, and it stretched from the river bank 
westward over the hills about two miles and 
faced the north. Here they lay in wait for 
Burgoyne, who had rallied from his repulses at 
Bennington and Fort Stanwix, and was press- 
ing down the bank of the Hudson River to- 
ward Alban\- from Fort Edward. 



Saratoga 59 

On the 13th of September, a bridge of 
boats was stretched across the Hudson River 
— just below the mouth of the Batten Kill — 
for the passage of Burgo)'ne's ami)-. They 
halted for the first night amid the charred 
wheat-fields of General Schuyler's farm on the 
south side of the Fishkill. On the morrow 
they hastened on to Cov'eville, and thence to 
Seward's house, where again their white tents 
were spread over the country. 

On September 19th Burgoyne moved for- 
ward to outflank the American camp on the 
west. An obstinate fight of many hours about 
the old farm-well and in the great ravine fol- 
lowed, and the British failed in their attempt to 
pass the Americans or to weaken their line. 
But they held persistently to the position they 
had taken at Freeman's Parm and at the close 
of the battle fortified their camp from the point 
on Freeman's F'arm in a line to the eastward 
on the bank of tlu: river, where they built three 
redoubts upon three hills. The fortified camp 
of the Americans lay about a mile and a half 
below in aline parallel with the British. Here, 
within bugle-call of each other, for two weeks, 
the hostile forces sat uj)on the hills of .Sara- 
toga, frowning' defiance at c!ach other, and 



6o Saratoga 

ready to open the conflict at a moment's 
warning. 

Burgoyne waited in vain for the Americans 
to attack him behind his works, and for a 
message, hourly expected, that Chnton would 
come from New York to his relief. Hunger 
pressed sorely upon the army. The brilliant 
conquests he had pictured to himself were 
fading from his grasp. He called his officers 
toi^ether in council. Silence and gloom hung 
over them. Should they advance or retreat ? 
His imperious will dictated the advice he de- 
sired. Finally Fraser sustained the comman- 
der. An advance was ordered. On the 7th 
of October the British marched from their 
entrenchments in battle arra\". Burgoyne led 
the centre ; Fraser a flanking column to the 
right ; the royal artillery to the left, and the 
Hessians in reserve. Like a great bird of 
prey they settled in line of battle upon the 
broken ground that separated them from the 
American camp. Gates took up the gauntlet 
thus thrown down and exclaimed, " Order out 
Morgan to begin the game." With a word to 
his command the watchful and heroic Morofan 
dashed into the struggle, scattered Burgoyne's 
advance-guard, rushed on against the trained 




OLD WELL," FREEMAN'S FARM, BATTLE-GROUND BEMIS HEIGHTS, SEPT. IP, 1777. 



62 Saratoga 

forces of Fraser, and swept them from the 
position to the left which they had taken in 
advance. With masterly skill and courage, 
Fraser rallied his men, and was forming a 
second line of defence, when he fell mortally 
wounded. 

The sharp whistle of Morgan called his 
men once more to action. They charged, 
while Poor and Larned attacked the centre 
and the right. The battle swayed back and 
forth through the great ravine. Another charge 
from Morgan and the British retreated to 
their entrenchments. At this moment the im- 
patient Arnold, stung to madness by the slights 
jHit upon him by Gates, dashed across the 
field. He gathered the regiments under his 
leadership by his enthusiasm, bravery, and 
vehemence. He broke through the lines of 
entrenchments at Freeman's Farm. Repulsed 
for a moment, he assailed the left and charged 
the strong redoubt of Breyman which flanked 
the British camp at the place now called 
Burgoyne's Hill. The patriot army, fired 
with hope and courage, crowded fearlessly up 
to the very mouth of the belching guns of the 
redoubt, won the final victory of the day, and 
then, exhausted by the desperate fight, dropped 




GENERAL DANIEL MORGAN. 



G3 



64 Saratoga 

down for a few hours' rest before they took 
possession of the British camp. 

But there was no rest for the defeated army. 
Silently and sullenly during these hours, they 
withdrew from the works at Freeman's Farm, 
and huddled closely together under the three 
redoubts by the river. Here the women, 
Madam Riedesel, Lady Ackland, and others, 
trembled and wept over the dying Fraser. 
Here the hospital stood with its overflowing 
throng of the wounded and the dead. The 
great and princely army waited in doubt and 
despair while their commander wavered in 
his plans. Should he try to hold his danger- 
ous ground, should he risk another engage- 
ment, should he retreat ? The last course was 
chosen. On the followino^ nicrht a retreat 
began as the last minute-guns were fired 
magnanimously by the Americans, in honor 
of Fraser's funeral, which took place at sunset. 
The sun fell behind the heights upon which 
the exultant Americans lay ; heavy clouds 
followed, and quickly after, amid the drenching 
rain, the army of Burgoyne, abandoning their 
sick and wounded, began the retreat up the 
river. 

Retracing their steps from Bemis Heights, 



Saratoga 6 



'& 







the scene of their disaster, they followed up the 
river road to the Fishkill and the Schuyler 
mansion, which they burned to the ground. 
Failing here in an attempt to make a stand 
aofainst the advancing- Americans, then' fell 
back, formed an entrenched camp, and planted 
their batteries along the heights of old Sara- 
toga. In this camp they still hoped to hold 
out until relief should come up the Hudson 
from New York. Here the romance and 
pathos of the campaign culminated, as de- 
scribed by Madam Riedesel, the accomplished 
and beautiful wife of the Hessian general, in 
her thrilling account of the retreat and of the 
agonizing da)'s that followed. At the Marshall 
house, where she had taken refuge, the cannon- 
balls thrown across the river crashed through 
its walls, and rolled along the tloor, so that 
the sick antl wounded were driven into the 
cellar where she and her children and the 
broken-hearted widows of the dead were suffer- 
ing, watching, and starving. Frail l)y l^irth and 
rearing, Madam Riedesel stood in the doorwa)^ 
of the cellar, and with arms outspread across 
the open door held at bay the selfish, brutal 
men who would have crowded out the sick and 
dying. Burgo\'ne and his arnu', entrenched on 



66 



Saratoga 



the hills, and with the river below, yet had no 
water to drink, except a cupful brought now and 
then for the faint and wounded from the river 
by the British women, on whom the gallant 
Americans, ever tender toward woman, would 
not fire. 




CONGRESS SPRING, 1898. 

Finally, driven to the last extremity, with 
the Americans on the north, where Stark had 
seized Fort Edward, to the east, where F'ellows 
held the river bank, and to the south, where 
Gates had thrown his victorious army, Bur- 
goyne sent in his terms of surrender. Almost 
on the site of old Fort Hardy, his brave but 
unfortunate troops laid down their arms, and 
near the site of the old Schuvler mansion. 



^i 

1 



t> ' - \lV1 u the 

\intmni iiiiT~n tm riMrff — nfTTT'i 111 'III " ' T 







SIGN 
67 



PUTNAM AND THE WOLF " ON PUTNAM'S TAVERN, SARATOGA SPRINGS. 

ORIGINAL SIGN IN GRAND UNION HOTEL, SARATOGA hPHlHOt, N. v. 



68 Saratoga 

which they had so recently burned, Burgoyne 
surrendered his sword to General Gates. 
Along the road, just across the Fishkill, the 
American army stretched in two lines, between 
which the disarmed prisoners were marched to 
the shrill notes of the fife and the measured 
beat of the drum, to the tune of " Yankee 
Doodle," played for the first time as a national 
air. 

General Schuyler, the hospitable and mag- 
nanimous, was on the ground. Neither the 
slitrht he had received from Conorress nor the 
injuries inflicted on him by the British could 
quench his generous nature. He rejoiced 
with his victorious countrymen, he sympathized 
with the fallen enemy, he protected and cared 
for the helpless women. 

During the summer of 1777 he had cut a 
road from his farm at old Saratoi»"a throuofh 
the wilderness to the High Rock Spring, 
already famous for its medicinal properties. 
He built a small frame house on the ledge of 
rocks overhanging the spring, and here for 
several summers his family came with him for 
rest and recreation as they had formerly gone 
to the comfortable mansion at old Saratoga. 
This was replaced by a rude cabin, and there. 



Sarato^£(a 69 

in I y^^^, Washington was entertainc^d when, 
with General CHnton, he came to visit the 
Saratoga battle-ground. The party proceeded 
northward to Ticonderoga, and on their return 
stopped at High Rock Spring. General Wash- 
ington was so strongly impressed with the 
value of the watc^r and the beauty of the region 
that shortly afterward he tried to buy the prop- 
erty, but Livingston, Van Dam, and others had 
already secured it. 

The events of the Revolution had discour- 
aged the few settlers who first came to the 
springs, and for years afterwards but two log 
cabins offered a shelter to adxenturous tour- 
ists. In 1 791, Gideon Putnam cleared his 
farm at Saratoga, and Governor Gilman of 
New Hampshire in 1792 discovered Congress 
Spring. Putnam Iniilt his large boarding- 
house and tavern, -aim] far-seeing and lil^cral- 
minded, he purchased extensive tracts of land 
and secured the foundation of the beautiful and 
prosperous village whicli is now a delight to 
visitors and a valued home to its residents. 
It is essentially a place of " homes," where 
people of large or small means are assured of 
that ([uieL and ease which cannot be found in 
cities or towns whicli depend tor their pros- 



70 



Saratoga 



perity on active commercial or manufacturing 
interests. 



;'„<,»oooooooX'-®U7 \ 







°°°°°<>oooooooo«o''''' 
SEAL OF SARATOGA. 



SCHENECTADY 

THE PROVINCIAL OUTPOST OF LIBERTY 

ByJUDSON S. LAN don 

SCHENF.CTADY was settled in 1662. To 
oivc to the stor\- of the settlement its 
proper character arnon*^ the beginnings of 
free institutions in America it is necessary to 
recall the: fact that the States-General of the 
Netherlands in 1621 chartered a trading con- 
cern, the Dutch West India Conii)an)-, granted 
it the monopoK of the fur trade in New 
Netherland, and perniitteel it togo\"ern, so long 
as it could, whatever colonies might inhabit the 
territory The company tluis lormed ruled 
over the tcrrlt()r\- from 1O24 tt) 1064, when the 
English, trumping up a stale claim ol prior 
discover)-, interfereil and took jjossession. 

The compain's rule was arhitrarx, hul not 
without good featurc-s. Trailers arc not apt 



72 



Schenectady 



to cavil over religious dogmas, — the company 
permitted freedom of conscience and worship. 
Subjects and servants render better obedience 
and service if treated with kindness and justice. 

The directors 
of the com- 
pany seemed 
to know this, 
and professed 
to ofovern ac- 
cordingly, but 
their govern- 
ors sometimes 
found pre- 
texts for the 
injustice 
which prom- 
ised the surest 
profits. 

Some of the colonists insisted that the 
people ought to have a part in the govern- 
ment. The Dutch governor, when he most 
needed their support, would promise conces- 
sions. He sometimes seemed to have begun 
to make them, but he made none that were 
substantial. Why should the trading company 
sentence itself to d(,-ath ? 




COLONIAL HOUSE, UNION STREET. 



Schenectady 73 

Agriculture was necessary for tlie food- 
supply of the new pnjvince, and promised 
customers for the imports from Holland. 
Liberal terms were extended to the agricul- 
turist. Men of wealth were tempted by offers 
of vast tracts of land, with a sort of feudal 
sovereignty, on condition that each of them 
would establish fifty families upon his domain. 
Among others the nianor or lordship ot Rens- 
selaerswyck was established, embracing nearl)- 
all the territory now comprised wqthin the 
counties of Albany and Rensselaer. Literally 
its jurisdiction was suijject to that of the W est 
India Compan)-, but practicalh" it was inde- 
pendent of it. The compan)- established a 
trading and govermental post at Beverwyck 
or b'ort Orange, now Albany, and exercised 
supreme jurisdiction, exclusive of that of 
Rensselaerswyck, for at least musket-range 
about the fort. 

Amonof the colonists aiul traders who had 
been attracted to Be\'er\v\ck and Rensselaers- 
wyck were some intelligent antl c-nterprising 
men, mostly Protestant Dutchmen, who, after 
varied exj^erience but general good fortune in 
the i)r()\ince, resolved to go apart by them- 
selves and establish a communitx \\ lure justice 



Schenectady 75 

equality and libcrt)- could be secured and 
enjoyed, free from the overlordship of a 
patroon, and as remote as was practicalde 
from contact with the grasping West India 
Company, cither at I-'ort Orange or Man- 
hattan. 

The leader of these men was the founder ot 
Schenectady, Arendt \ an Curler. He was 
the nephew of Kihaen \'an Rensselaer, and 
came from Hollantl in 1630 as director of 
his uncle's principalit)-. This he managed 
witli great success for many \(;ars. All ac- 
counts agree in describing him as a man 
of honor, benevolence, ability and activity. 
His unvarying fairness and tactful address 
soon secured for him the respect and con- 
fidence of all who knew him, and especially of 
the Moliawk Indians. In their opinion lie 
was the greatest and best white man they ever 
knew. They decorated him while living with 
the distinction of " very gootl friend," and 
honoreil liim when (h-ad b\- calling other 
governors " Curler " or " Corlear," a title whicli 
still survives with the same nu-aning in the 
language of the scatteretl n-mnants of iluir 
tribe. It was through his good offices that 
jieace was secured bt'twecn the proxinee and 



76 Schenectady 

the Five Nations, arnony' whom the ^lohawks 
were the foremost, and preserved unbroken 
during- his Hfe. By following his policy peace 
was long maintained after his death. 

The beauty and fertility of the Mohawk 
country early attracted his attention. A letter 
addressed by him in 1643 to the " Noble Pa- 
troon " at Amsterdam exists, in which, after 
giving an account of his stewardship as man- 
ager of his uncle's interests, he writes that the 
year before he had visited the Mohawk coun- 
try, where he found three French prisoners, 
one of them being the celebrated Father 
jogues, " a very learned scholar, who was very 
cruelly treated, his finger and thumb being cut 
off." These prisoners were doomed to death, 
but \'an Curler succeeded in effecting their re- 
lease. Father Jogues, however, eager for the 
salvation of their souls, returned to them two 
years later, to suffer martyrdom at their hands 
In this letter Van Curler writes: 

" Within a half-day's journey from the Colonies lies 
the most beautiful land on the Mohawk river that eye 
ever saw, full a day's journey long." He says " it can- 
not be reached by boat owing to the strength of the 
stream and shallowness of the water, but can be reached 
bv wagons." 



Schenectady 11 

Another part of tliis letter is worth transcril)- 
ino- : 

" I am at present betrothed to the widow of the kite 
Mr. Jonas Bronrk. May tlie good dod vouchsafe to 




"the blue GATE" ENTRANCE TO UNION COLLEGE GROUNDS. 

Mess me in myundertaking, ami please to grant tliat itniay 
conduce to His honor and our mutual salvation. .Amen." 

We know that llu: l^ooJ l.ul)' lon^- sur\i\i-(l 
him, aiul as his wiilow was conccdeil some 
si)ccial prix ileocs !>)• the ^overnmciU. 



/S Schenectady 

" The most beautiful land " upon which Van 
Curler looked, was the Mohawk \'alley, em-' 
bracing Schenectady and extending far to the 
westward. 

As he stood upon the crest of the upland 
southwest of the present city, where the sandy 
plain abruptly ends and gives place to the rich 
bottom-lands a hundred and hfty feet below, 
he lookeei northwesterly upon a wide expanse 
of meadow, through which the Mohawk River, 
gleaming in the sunlight, slowly wencied. His 
eye rested upon the outline of that break in 
the mountains where the ?^Iohawk has gorged 
its bed, through which in our day the Xew 
York Central Railroad passes from the sea- 
board to the Mississippi without climbing a 
foot-hill. It is the only level pass through the 
great Appalachian chain between the St. Law- 
rence X'alley and the Gulf of Mexico. Not a 
tree and scarcely a bush grew upon this plain, 
but here and there were scattered patches of 
beans, corn and pumpkins, the fruit of the in- 
dustr)' of the Mohawk women ; and upon the 
higher ground where Schenectady now stands, 
the second great castle of the iNIohawks. the 
Capitol of the Five Nations, stood, surrounded 
bv manv wiorwams of the tribe. The nearer 



Schenectady 79 

hills and the more distant mountains were 
clothed with forests. This cleared and fertile 
intervale, set in its forest frame, was due to the 
volume of watrr which in the spring- freshets 
pours down the river. Three miles east of 
the city its channel is crossed by i^reat led_L,^es 
of shale rock, through which the river has cut 
its wa)', which still remains too narrow for the 
immediate passage of its waters wlu-n ^reatK" 
swollen. These, overtlowin;^ and enrichinij' 
the bottomdands above, also denude them of 
their forest growth. 

The Indian name of the [)lace was Schonowc, 
the first sellable pronounced much like the 
Dutch "schoon," — beautiful. Some of the 
Dutch, sharing \'an Curler's idea of the beauty 
of the place, wished to call it Sr/iooii, Ix-autiful. 
achtcti, esteemed, del, valle)-, — Sclioonachtcndcl. 
The Indian name and the Dutch substitute 
were combined and confounded in a various 
and perplexing orthography which remains to 
us in the tleeds, wills and other ])apers of that 
time, from whicli the name Schenectad\- was 
tinally evolved. 

Although \'an Curler was attracted thus 
earl\' b\- this beaulilul land, ii w.is long before 
he could realize his purposes. lie married 



So Schenectady 

the Widow Bronck and continued the care of 
his uncle's interest in the manor of Rensselaers- 
wyck. But despite the success of his manage- 
ment the longer he stayed the more he saw and 
deplored the evils inherent in the feudal system. 
To his enlarged and benevolent mind the sys- 
tem itself was essentially one of serfdom. 

The patroon was lord of the manor, the 
owner of all the land and of a fixed share of 
all the produce of his subjects or tenants, with 
the right of a pre-emption of all the surplus 
beyond what was necessary for their support. 
They took an oath of allegiance to him : they 
could not hunt or fish or trade or leave the 
manor without his consent or that of his repre- 
sentative. If they sold their tenant right and 
improvements, a part of the price was his. 
His will was tlie law, for his subjects renounced 
their right of appeal to the provincial govern- 
ment from his decrees or those of his magis- 
trates. He was an absentee, and measured the 
merit of his agents by the amount of their 
remittances. The government of the province 
as administered at Fort Orange or at Manhat- 
tan was as good as could be expected from a 
trading company, but was odious to men of 
Van Curler's enlarged understanding. 



Schenectady 8i 

The firearms of wliitc men at I)cv(jr\v)ck ami 
in Rensselaerswyck bei^^an to impair the vakie of 
the hunting groiinds in their vicinit)^ and Van 
Curler learned that the Indians might consent 
to sell their lands at Schenectady. He looked 
about for associates in the purchase of the lands 
and their settlement, and sifted out fourteen. 
He applied to the Director General or Gover- 
nor of the province, Peter Stu)vesant — whose 
real qualities and worth and those of his good 
subjects the ]:)en ot Ir\ing has replaced with 
the genial travesties of his enduring carica- 
ture, — and obtained his reluctant consent to 
the piu'chase. He then applied to the Indian 
chiefs. They too were reluctant. Schonowe 
was the site of one of their most ancient castles. 
It had long been their favorite home. Their 
traditions covered man\' generations, but no 
tradition reached back to their first coming. 
vStill the)' well remembered that Hiawatha had 
lived here, two centuries or more before. 

lliawatha, the chief, of whom the (ireat 
S|)irit was an ancestor, and whose wisdom, 
goodness and xalor far surpassed that of other 
men, was the founder of the confederacy' of the 
Five Nations. He devotctd his long life to the 
good of his people, teaching ihem to li\-e n()i)ler 



Schenectady 8 



o 



and better, and finally was l)ornc in tin- (Icsh 
to the Ha|)py Huntino- (Grounds. Lon^dellow 
sinij^s ot Hiawatha with no stint of pot-tic li- 
cense, l)ut his Jiannonious numbers do not sur- 
l)ass the Indian estimate; of his ([ualities. No 
doubt there was sucii a man, of exceptional 
wisdom, valor and intluence, and that he dis- 
appeared without beintr known to have died. 
Arounel his memory tradition. emj;lo\inL;' the 
fiij^urative language of the Indians, accumu- 
lated myths and maj^nified them.' 

Van Curler was persistent, and in tlie end tlie 
Indians couhl not find itin tlieir hearts to deny 
their "very good friend," and llie deed was 
formally executed and deli\-ered at Fort ( )r- 
ange, Jul\- 2, 1661. 

The founders ente-red into possession. I he 
Indians l)ade them welcome, and Ix-gan lo 
move their wigwams uj) the vallew It was 
their first stejj in the many stages of their 
unreturning journe\- toward the setting sun. 

' The writer is iiulfl)teil t<» As-que-scnt-wah, .1 iiK-iiihcr i>f tlio 
(3nondaj^a tribe, an authority uixm Imlian local lore, and well known 
among white men as Kdward Winslow Paige, for an account of the 
tradition which fixes the residence of Hiawatha at .Schonowe. Mr. 
I'aige owns the lot at the west eml of Union Street on the bank of 
the Hinnekill, upon which the castle and residence stood. He 
points out to the visitor existiu'; traces of the Indian occupation. 



84 Schenectady 

Their own sun thus passed its zenith, hut they 
did not know it. 

The colonists fixed their home or village 
lots upon the land above the sweep of the 
river floods, occupying for this purpose that 
part of the city west of the present Ferry 
Street. I'hey assigned to each proprietor a 
village lot, two hundred feet square ; a larger 
lot for a garden just south of the village, and a 
farm upon the bottom-lands beyond, with 
privileges in the outlying woodlands. Other 
settlers joined them. They sold them village 
lots and farm and garden lands, until the farm 
lands of the Van Curler grant were disposed 
of. Those who came still later bought villa_ge 
lots, but they had to buy farms of the Indians 
from lands outside of the Van Curler grant. 
Mechanics, traders and workmen came who did 
not want land, or lacked the means to buy it. 
Many of the proprietors were rich enough to 
own slaves, which — or shall I say whom ? — they 
brought with them. Very soon by dint of 
industry their houses were built of the lumber 
sawed at their own mills, their farms were 
promising abundant crops, their gardens were 
blossoming, while their cattle were grazing 
in more distant pastures. 



SchcHLCtacly 85 

In tliis little republic the freeholders were 
the source of authority. By their, and of them 
five trustees were elected " for iiiaintaininL,'- 
good order and advancinc^ their settlement." 
The " Reformed Xcther Dutch Church " was 
early established with its elders and deacons, 
and later, with its settled dominc.-, maintained 
a guardianship over the people and especially 
the widows, orphans, and the poor. The 
communit)- was under the titular jurisdiction 
of the province; the laws of Holland were in 
force with respect to contracts, property rights, 
and domestic relations, and were observed as a 
matter of course. The goxernor appointed 
the trustees or their nominees, sc/icpcus or 
justices of the peace, and they appointed a 
sellout or constable, with large executive 
powers. This official, conscious of his power, 
and arrased in a garb denoting it, solemnly 
pointed his pipe stem and sometimes even 
.shook his sword, at the wayward. If an\- were 
so n^fraetory as not to mend tlicir wa\s after 
such an admonition, he haled them before tlu! 
schei)en. I liis magistrate, as his commission 
was construed, had th<' right so to supi^K' the 
defects in the Dutch laws and tin- ordinances 
of "Their lii'jh M i'jhtinesses. the noble 



86 Schenectady 

Dutch West India Company," as to "make 
the punishment fit the crime." This meant 
that he could impose such a fine as the schout 
thought collectible, or such other punishment 
as he would undertake to indict. Causes of 
great gravity, such as complaints by the 
traders at BeverAvyck that the accused had 
infringed upon their monopolies, were brought 
before that jurisdiction, but the records dis- 
close no practical benefits to the complain- 
ants. 

In 1664, two years after the first settlement, 
the province and its government passed by 
conquest from the Dutch to the English. 
This made but little change at Schenectady. 
The system of government already begun was 
continued. The manor of Rensselaerswyck 
was confirmed to the patroon with some change 
in the sovereignty, but none in his property 
rights. Beverwyck became Albany, the county 
of Albany was established, and embraced 
Schenectady. The court at Albany took juris- 
diction of such larger causes as the " Duke's 
Laws," conferred upon it. and the minor ones 
remained as before within the jurisdiction of 
the local magistrates. There were but few 
ministers of the gospel in the province, and it 



~^ 










m 



'^m 



;%?'^ 




«1 

N %-H i/ -I? 




87 



FI9ST REFORMED 'DUTCH' CHURCH. 



88 Schenectady 

was not until 16S4 that the Reverend Petriis 
Thesschenmaecher, a oraduate of the Uni- 
versity of Utrecht, was installed as their first 
resident pastor or domine. It was a memo- 
rable day, when that pious man, in liis hhick 
silken robe, ascended the high pulpit of the 
church edifice which, loopholed for musketry 
too;ether witli his dwellino-house, awaited his 
coming, and in the deep solemn guttural of 
his Nether Dutch speech, led the worship 
of his dutiful llock. These Dutch Protestants 
did not agonize about Ciod's wrath like the 
Puritans; they assumed His loving care, as a 
child does its father's. The ordinances and 
forms of worship prescribed by the Church 
were regarded as duties to be observed as 
well as privileges to be enjoyed, and the 
higher the social or official state of the indi- 
vidual, the more prominent and circumspect 
must he be in his religious observances. One 
of the documents of that day opens in these 
words : " We, the justices, consistory, together 
with the common people of Schanegtade, con- 
ceive ourselves in duty bound to take care of 
our reverend minister." It is signed by the 
justices, elders, deacons and many others who, 
we must assume, were " common people." 



Schcncct:uly '^9 

There remains a marriage contract in which 
a widower ;nitl a widow recite how miicli 
propcrt)- each brings to the marriage state ; 
the widow enumerating among other ])ropert\' 
three slaves, for whose freedom upon Vrr 
decease, however, she provides. No douht 
tile justices, the consistor)-, the freeholders 
and the common people observed this order 
of precedence on this and all like occasions; 
the widow being preceded b)' a slave bearing 
a warming-box for her feet, a metrical version 
of the Psalms, and the book of devotion con- 
taining the liturg)-. th(.' //(•/(/(•//?(r<^'- CatcclusDi, 
the Coiifcssioti of Faith and the canons of the 
Church, as all these had been approved by the 
S)nod of Dordrecht in 1619. 

Long before; this learned graduate; of the 
L'nixcrsity of Utrecht was secunil, the 
Rev. Gideon Schaets, minister at Albany, was 
permitted b\- his Church to visit Schenectady 
at least four times a year, upon a week da\- 
("since it would Ix; unjust lo let the com- 
munity be without preaching" - so the recoril 
at Alban\' recites), and administer the Lord's 
Supper, baptize the chiKlren and officiate at 
m.irriages. Marriage, however, was a ci\il 
function o\er which a ma-'isirate was com- 



90 



Schenectady 



petent to preside. As early as 1681 the Church 
had an investment for the support of the 
poor of 3,000 guilders, which had reached 
4,000 guilders in 1690, when the Church 

perished in the 
destruction and 
massacre of 
that year. 

The inhabi- 
tants of t li i s 
frontier village, 
who welcomed 
w i t h open 
liands and glad 
hearts their first 
domine, might 
well be par- 
doned if there 
was a leaven of 
worldly pride in 
their greeting. Where else in all the provinces 
was there a more prosperous, more generous, 
more intelligent and better ordered people? 
There was no lack of substantial plenty. Who 
more than they were entitled to establish a 
Church and have a domine of their own ? In Oc- 
tober, 1683, the first legislative assembly chosen 




ELLIS HOSPITAL. 



Schenectady 9^ 

bv the frt-eholdcrs was suniinoned to convene in 
New ^■()^k, to frame hiws for the province. I))' 
the o;overnor's prochmiation Schenectady had 
been accorded a representative, and thus its 
imiDortance in the body pohtic was recognized. 
The \illage was the frontier l)iil\\ark of civih- 
zation, where the white man and the Mohawk 
Indian, In' keeping faith with each other, kept 
bright the chain of frientlship which made the 
Five Nations the alhes of tlie I'rovince of New 
York. To guard against French and Indian 
incursions, a stockade had been buih around 
the village. This was a high fence made of 
three rows of posts set together tirml\- in tlie 
ground. There was a gate upon the north and 
south sides, and a fort within the stockade at 
each gate. Although often alarmed, it was 
not until the war between England and her 
allies and b'rance. which was soon declared after 
James IL abdicated the crown of b:ngland in 
the revolution of i68S and William and Mary 
came to the throne, that this frontier village 
was seriousK- tlirealened. Jacob Ltisler. a 
Dutch trader ami captain of a military com- 
pany, of great zeal but of small ability, seized 
the government in the name oi \\ illiam and 
Mar\- and brought confusion among tlu- peo- 



92 Schenectady 

pie by his presumption. The common people 
favored Leisler. They " blessed the great 
God of Heaven and Earth for deliverance 
from Tyranny, Popery, and .Slavery." The 
aristocracy opposed him, and complained that 
" Fort fames was seized by the rabble, that 
hardly one person of sense and estate does 
countenance." Their wisest leader, Van 
Curler, had long- been dead ; ^ and the people 
of Schenectady became hopelessly divided. 
Warnings were frequent, but vigilance was 
relaxed, and at last the blow fell upon a 
defenceless people. 

On the night of the 8th of P^ebruary, 1690, 
one hundred and fourteen P>enchmen and 
ninety-six Indians, sent by F"rontenac, Gov- 
ernor General of Canada, after a twenty-two 
days' march from Montreal, through the snow 
and the wilderness, stole in through the open 
gates of the stockade, massacred sixty of the 
inhabitants, plundered and burned about sixty 
houses — leaving only six — and carried away 
thirty captives. The survivors, who were for- 
tunate enough in the confusion to escape either 

' Ik- was (Iniwncd in October, 1667, in Lake Cliam]>lain, wliile 
journeying to Canada in response to the pressing; invitation of tlie 
(jovernor (leneral to visit him. 



Schcncctad)' 



93 



hy accident or nioht. luinilxn-d about two hun- 
dred and fifty. Their distress cannot be de- 
scribed. They l)uried tlieir dead, their beloved 
pastor beiuL; among the slain. They made what 
provision they 
c o u 1 d against 
the severity of 
the winter and 
t h e n took 
thought of the 
future. Should 
they abandon 
the place where 
for a (piartcT of 
a century the\" 
had 1 i \ e d in 
p e a c e a n tl ; 
plent\-. and sc^ek I — 
s a f e t )• e 1 s e - 
where ? Help 

and counsel came to tliem from .\lbany. 
b:soi)us and New NOrk. from Massachusetts 
and Connecticut, and not least from the 
friendly Mohawks, all encouraging them to 
stay. Indeed, there was no i)lac<' ol assured 
safety in tlu' whole province. VUr war 
threatened all the Knglish colonies. '1 he 




EDISON HOTEL. 



94 Schenectady 

colonies sent their delegates to New York, 
where they concerted measures for the com- 
mon defence. This was the first general 
American Congress. To abandon Schenec- 
tady would be to encourage the enem)^ to en- 
tlanger the whole province by discouraging its 
allies, the Iroquois or Five Nations, causing 
them to distrust the valor and prowess of the 
English arms, and possibly to embrace the oft 
proffered alliance of the French. Schenectady 
must be held, cost what it might. The surviv- 
ors finally concluded to stay. Twenty-four of 
the freeholders subscribed to a paper, stating : 

" In the first place, it is agreed to resort to tlie Nortli 
Fort to secure our bodies and defend them. 

" Secondly, that the crojjs or fruits of the eartli — tluit 
is, the winter grain, shall be in common for the use of all, 
and all the mowing lands for this year. 

" Thirdly, the widows shall draw their just due and 
portions. 

" If any one will voluntarily depart or draw up for 
Canada, he shall yet have liis full share and the benefits. 

" Every one that shall stand to these articles shall obev 
the orders of their officers, on the penalty of such pun- 
ishment as shall be seasonable, without expecting any 
favor, grace or dissiuuilation." 

The survivors began the work of recon- 
struction and defence. F\"erv able-bodied 



Schenectady 95 

man became 1)oth citiz(,-n and soldier, ready for 
service at liomc or on scout or picket or skir- 
mish duty, wherever the approach of the enemy 
was to be feared. Schenectady became a mil- 
itar\- camp where the provincial troops, rein- 
forced by detachments from New Enorland and 
by their Iroquois allies, made good the safct\ 
of Schenectady and thus kept watch and ward 
(H-er the hn^lish domii'iion in North Amc-rica. 
riu\- recognized Governor Leisler's authorit\- 
and sent a representative to the two sessions 
of his Assembly held in April and October, 
1690.' 

The warlike state of things existed from 
1690 until after the peace of Ryswyck in 1697. 
Upon the return of peace, Schenectady began 
to resume its former state and prosperity. 1 he 
people re])uilt tlieir cluirch and called the 1\<\-. 
Bernardus iM'eerman as their pastor. llow 
dear he became to them the many children 
named in his honor attest. The Dutch 
population was sj)rinkl(Hl with a few I'.nglish- 
speaking soldiers who chose to make it then- 
home. Its importance increased as a (••ntrc ot 

' (;i)vernor Leisk'rwas afterwardh unjustly coiulcniiicil an<l exe- 
cuted for hiijh trcasMii ; the ilestruction of Schenectady beinj: one 
of tlu- ch.Tri;es ajjainst liini. 



96 Schenectady 

trade, not only with the Indians, but with those 
hardy pioneers, who, attracted by the fertile 
lands, or the desire to join the friendly Indians 
in their hunting expeditions, pushed farther up 
the valley. The traders at Albany protested 
against this invasion of their monopoh', and 
also against the exercise of milling, weaving 
and tanning privileges, but in a famous law- 
suit in the Supreme Court of the province, the 
Albany monopolists were beaten, and Schen- 
ectady's full right to freedom of trade and 
manufacture was established. Then came 
Oueen Anne's War with the French, lasting 
from 1701 to I 713, and. Schenectady was again 
in peril, and again garrisoned, for the same 
reason and much in the same way as before ; 
but, the Iroquois having made a treaty of 
peace with Canada, the brunt of the war fell 
upon New England and Schenectady passed 
safely through it. 

From the treaty of Utrecht in 171 3 to the 
"Old French W^ar," 1744-48, peace prevailed. 
In the latter war many inhabitants of the 
village were killed in skirmishes or cut down by 
skulking Indians in the service of the French. 
In one skirmish, or rather massacre, at Beu- 
kcndal, three miles northwest of Schenectady, 



Schenectady 97 

twcnt}- men were killed and thirteen ca[jtured 
■And carricnl away. Then came the last I'rench 
war. troni 1753 to 1763. The English now 
liad posts at I'\)rt Hunter, I'^ort Schuyler. 
Fort Johnson and Oswego on the west, at 
Fort Ann and Fort Edward on the north. Sir 
William Johnson and others had established 
settlements up the Mohawk X'allew Sir Wil- 
liam was general superintendc-nt of Indian 
affairs and a Major-General in the EnL;lish 
service. His influence over the Iroquois was 
command ini; ; Ids early victory at Fake ( icorge 
Avas important ; the F^nglish carried the war 
into the I'rench territor)-. Sclienectatly en- 
joNed immunit)' from attack, and was enabled, 
besides maintaining a garrison in its fort, to 
send its quotas of troops to distant service, one 
company assisting in the English siege and 
capture of 1 lavana in i 762. 

The treaty of Paris in 1763,!)) wliich the 
I'reiich \ielded the dominion of North .America 
lo the I'^nglish, seemetl to ])romise a lasting 
peace. luiL the W ar ot the Revolution cann- 
on. ()ur Indian allies, the Irocpiois, remained 
faithful to their long allegiance to the i^nglish 
Crown, and became our enemies under the 

leadership of .Sir lohn |ohnson. who. succeed- 
7 



98 Schenectady 

ino- to the estate and title of his father, Sir 
Wilham, adhered to the Crown, under which 
both became ennobled. Schenectady was 
again threatened, from the side of Canada, 
but by its former friends and allies. Aside 
from its contribution of six companies to the 
patriot cause, its position made it the base 
from which those who adhered to the English 
cause sought to send aid and comfort to the 
enemy. General Washington came here early 
in the struggle, and made arrangements for the 
frontier defence.^ 

The Schenectady patriots appointed a com- 
mittee of vigilance and safety, who, as the one 
hundred and sixty-two written pages of their 
records show, repressed with strong hand and 
scant ceremony the slightest evasions of the 
orders of Congress and of the militar\- authori- 
ties, and all attempts at treasonable intercourse 
with the enemy. Finally American independ- 
ence was won, and Schenectady, after nearly a 



' He came attain in 17S2, wlieii the struggle was practi- 
cally over. The authorities and the people did their utmost in his 
honor. This he suitably acknowledged in a letter addressed " To 
the magistrates and militar\' authorities of the townshij) of Schen- 
ectady," closing in these words : " May the complete lilessings of 
peace soon reward your arduous struggle for the freedi)m and inde- 
pendence of our common countr)."' 



Schenectady 



99 



century of unrest, enjoyed the hlessin-' of ])cr- 
manent peace. The forts and stockade soon 
disappeared. 

Meantime the httle village liad stcadil\- 
grown, becoming a chartered borough in 1765, 




UNION COLLEGE, 1795. 

and advancing to the dignity of a city in i 79S. 
Schenectady received its first otticiall\- carried 
mail on the 3d day of April, i 763. — Benjamin 
iM'anklin being the colonial postmaster-general. 
— founded the Schenectad)- Acatlcmv in 1 7S4. 
which became I'nion ColK-ge in 1705. and 
read its first lu wspaper. The Sc/icuccladx (,'a- 
zcUi\ januar\- 6, 1 790. 

1 he militar\- octiipation and the incre-asin"- 



lOO 



Schenectady 



importance of the frontier trade added largely 
to the Enolish population. As early as 1710, 

the Rev. Thomas 
B a r cl a }' , the 
English chaplain 
to the fort in Al- 
bany, preached 
once a month at 
Schenectady, 
w here, as he 
writes, "there is 
a garrison of 
forty soldiers, be- 
sides about six- 
teen English and 
about one hun- 
dred Dutch fam- 
ilies." At that 
time the Dutch 
had no pastor. 
Mr. B a r cl ay 
writes, "There is 
a convenient and 
well built church 
which the y 
freely give me the use of." It was not, how- 
ever, until 1 759, when there were three hun- 




STATUE, SITE OF OLD FORT." 



Schenectady loi 

drc'd houses in tlic villaj^e, that the Eiii^iish 
population undertook the erection of a separate 
church. They " purchased a glebe lot and by 
subscription chietly among themselves erected 
a neat stone church," and called it St. George's. 
This stone churcli, with its subsecjuent addi- 
tions, is the handsome St. George's of to-day. 
Its site had previously been covered by the 
English barracks. There is a tradition that 
the Presl)yterians assistetl in the erection of 
St. George's with the understanding that the 
Anoflicans were to iro in at the west door and 
the Presbyterians at the south door, but that 
the Anglicans managed to L;et the church con- 
secrated unknown to the Pr^'sb)terians. The 
latter, upon finding it out, were so indignant 
that they set about building a church for them- 
selves. Be this as it may, the Prcsl)\tcrians 
commenced Iniilding their church in 1770. and 
finished it with bell and steeple, the latter sur- 
mounted by a leaden ball gikled with " six 
books of gold leaf." 

]u 1767 the Methodist moNcmt-nt began 
here under the lead of Captain Thomas Webb. 
a local preacher bearing the license of John 
Wesley. The movement was favored and ad- 
\anced b\- the preaching of that great orator. 



I02 Schenectady 

Geor2fe Whitefield, then makinor his last Ameri- 
can tour. The society, however, waited until 
1809 before building- its first church edifice. 
In the same year Schenectady County was 
carved out of Albany County. 

All this while the English speech was gain- 
ing over the Dutch. Children of Dutch par- 
ents, despite the teaching of the nursery, would 
acquire and use the English idiom. Finally 
some of the members of the Dutch Church 
ventured to suggest the propriety of having 
service now and then in the Enorlish toneue. 
The staid burghers were shocked. But, the 
question once raised, the younger generation 
orew bolder, and the elder beean to listen. 
Domine Romeyn, a graduate of Princeton Col- 
lege, a fluent master of botli languages, and 
eminent for his varied learningf and as the 
founder of Union College, was pastor of the 
Church from 1784 to 1804. He so far yielded 
to the new demand as to preach in English 
upon occasions of which he was careful to give 
previous notice. It was not until 1 794 that 
the leading members of the Church represented 
to its consistory the necessity of increasing the 
services in English/ " to the end that the church 

' " Ten eviulc tie tienieente niet verstioNt werde." 



Schenectady 



103 



be not scatteretl." Ten years later, at tlie 
close of Domine Romeyn's lonL,^ ministr\-. the 




''THE BROOK THAT BOUNDS 
THRO' UNION'S GROUNDS." 

UNION COLLEGE. 



Dutch language ceased to be heard from the 
pulpit of the church. But there are still sur- 
viving a few — very few — inhabitants to whom 



I04 Schenectady 

the Dutch is their mother toncrue. One of 
them informs the writer that when he visited 
HoHand he conversed with ease with the peo- 
ple, but that he sometimes used words not fa- 
mihar to them and afterwards learned that 
these words were of Indian origin. 

As Schenectady is two hundred feet above 
tide-water at Albany, it early became the head- 
quarters of the western trade, goods being car- 
ried to and from the West upon canoes, bateaux, 
and the " Schenectady Durham boats." The 
trade developed into large proportions, and dur- 
ing tlie hundred years closing with the comple- 
tion of the Erie Canal in 1825, many traders 
made fortunes which were considered large in 
those days. Upon the completion of the canal 
the commercial prosperity of the city declined. 
The decline seemed to be confirmed by the 
era of railroads, notwithstanding the " Mohawk 
and Hudson " was the first railroad built in the 
State, its first passenger train arriving in Sche- 
nectady from Albany, September 12, 1831, and 
on the second railroad, the " Saratoga and 
Schenectady," the first train left Schenectady 
for Saratoga, July 12, 1832. 

The business revival, however, came at last. 
For fifty years its locomotive works have been 



Schenectady 



lO: 



renowned, hndinq; customers even in Hnoland. 
Now, that oldest of powers and newest of mer- 
cliandise, electricity, has its greatest plant here, 
from which its products seek the ends of the 




ELIPHALET NOTT, 

PRESIDENT OF UMON COLLEGE FOR SIXTY YEARS. 

habitable globe. These, with man\- other in- 
dustries, disturb the city's ancient repose. it 
no longer comprises a people exclusively of 
Dutch, Enoflish and Scotch ancestr\-. Init em- 
braces a polyglot assemblage, b'or more than 
a centur)- Union College, founded in an age 
less tolerant than our own upon the basis of 



To6 



Schenectady 



Christian unit)-, imphed by its name, over 
which the celebrated Doctor Nott presided for 
sixt)- years, and the accompHshed Doctor Ray- 
mond now presides, has been sending forth 
year by year its graduates. Among them — as 
the College justly boasts — is a long list of lead- 
ers in Church and in State, in the halls of 
learning, among the votaries of science, where 
industrial and professional skill achieves the 
worthiest triumphs, and where human needs 
require the wisest methods of helpfulness ; 
and ex'ery sign indicates that this long list 
will continue to leng-then. 

If there is any lesson, it is simple. The 
town was founded in the spirit of liberty and 
justice; the people cherished and cultivated 
the spirit so well that the Mohawk Indian for 
one hundred and twelve years respected and 
reciprocated. May the spirit long prevail ! 





NEWBLiRGH 

THE PALATINE PARISH BY QUASSAICK 

By ADELAIDE SKEEL 
Mr. Skcretauv V>o\\.v. to Lord 1,ovki.ace 

Whitkhai.l, loth Aug'st, 1708. 
\/v LonL—Vh^ Queen being graciously pleased to 
send' fiftv-two German Protestants to New York and 
to settle 'em there at Her own expenses, Her Majesty as 
a farther act of Charitv is willing to provide also for the 
subsistence of loshua de Ruckerthal their Mmister and 
it is Her Pleasure that you pass a grant to hmi ot a 
reasonable Portion of Land for a Cdebc not exceedmg 
five hundred acres with liberty to sell a suitable pro- 
portion thereof f<,r his better Maintenance idl he shall 
be in a condition to live by the produce ot the re- 

1 .. 1 am, mv Lord 

manulcr. ' • . , , , 

Your L 'dshp's Most taithful 

humble servant 

H. B(n i.K. 
Lord Lovki.ack. 

A bridire of siohs spans the distance between 
the coming of Newburoh's earhest settlers, the 

107 



loS 



Nc'w hurL'Ii 



( icini.iii l.iitlicr.ms hoDi llic lower Palatinate 
i>n till' kliinc, to tile later arri\al ol the I'Hi;- 
lish, Si'otcli, I'Veiuh aiul Irish. The Luther- 
ans were rellL^loils exiles, whose \illa!.MS had 
heen l>urnt, whose homes had heen destro\c(l 
and whose stroni.; I'rotestant laith alone sni"- 
\i\cd the wreck ol then' loi'lnnes. ( )| this 
|»o\ crt \ - si ruken conipany, nnie with then* 
wi\cs and ehddreii were sent \\\) llndson's 
l\i\er to ociupy lh<' present site ol New- 
hnrL^h. 

I he hrst nUenlion ol ( )iieen Anne ol I'-Hl;- 
land to send these ( icrnians to |aniaua where 
W hite people were needed, was set aside " lest 
ihe (Innate he not a^MceaMe to tluir con- 
st it nt ions, l)ein'j, so iniich hotter than that ol 
(lerinaiu." Apropos ol the inteiliL^eiit con- 
sideration ol these ( oinmissioners ol I'aniL^ra- 
tion m I yiH), one (jiiestions il the hall-clad 
travellers who .n"e descaahed in an i)\i\ dcxii- 
meiil .IS " \er\ necessitons," loiind the (Innate 
ol llndson's l\ i\ ( 1" aiMeeaMe to tluir const it n- 
t ions in w inter t iine. 

In winter iiine! Sailnu; up the river in 
siiinnier t line past Slee|)y Hollow and Spn\t(n 
I >ilN \ ll, l)e\tMul the w ide lapp.Ul /.ee, ihroiioh 
the ( lale ol the lli-dilaiuls w luae the waters 



iio Newburgh 

narrow and the mountains cross, where the 
fairies dance on old Cro's Nest, and Storm 
King dons and doffs his weather cap, on into 
Newburgh Bay where the Beacons guard the 
Fishkill shores, and the Queen City of the 
Hudson rises in green terraces on the western 
bank, the tourist idly wonders if these Palatine 
pilgrims, worn by the ravages of persecution, 
had eyes to see the beauty of the land they 
were about to possess. It is possible, not- 
withstanding the ice-bound waters and snow- 
covered country, that their homesick hearts 
may have been warmed b)' the sight of a river 
not unlike their Rhine. As yet no Irving, 
Paulding, Cooper, Drake or Willis had cast 
the magic witchery of his tales over these 
scenes, yet a century before, the Half-Moon 
had passed this way and perhaps the stories 
Henry Hudson's crew brought back of red 
devils dancing in rocky chambers amused the 
children aboard the sloop of the German 
Lutheran exiles. 

More pertinent in historical research than 
such imaorinines is the contrast between the 
temper of these voyagers and those others 
who sailed in the Mayflower, and before land- 
iuL!" covenanted with one another " to submit 



Newburgh 



1 1 1 



onl\- to such govern men t and governors as 
should be chosen by common consent." The 




JOEL T. HEADLEY. 



shores of the Hudson were no less fertile than 
those of Massachusetts, yet the Palatines 
showed far l(;ss aggressiveness than the Pil- 
s^^rinis. and far less courage to stand alone. The 



1 1 2 Newbureh 



t)' 



story of these Lutherans here in Newburoh is 
a story of petitions first to one Right Honor- 
able Lord and then to another, — petitions 
which, alas ! were too often unheeded, although 
the petitioners sorely in need of help never 
failed to sio-n themselves 

Your Honours 
Most Dutyfull 
and most obedient Company 
at Ouassek Creek and Tanskamir. 

In one letter to the Right Honourable Rich- 
ard Ingoldsby Esq''', Lieutenant Ciovernor 
and Commander-in-Chief over Her Majesty's 
Provinces in New York, Nova Caesaria and 
Territories depending thereon in America &c. 
as also to Her Majesty's Honourable Council 
of this Province &c. they plead that "the)- do 
not know where to address themselves to re- 
ceive the remainder of their allowance of pro- 
vision at gd per day." 

Again, in their search to find " a Gentleman 
who might be willing to support said Germans 
with the Remainder of their allowance the en- 
tire summ of which is not exceeding 195 lbs, 
3sh," they but succeed in finding a gentleman 
whose offer of assistance they considered only 
as "fine talke and discourse out of his own 



Newburgh 



1 1 



head" — by which one learns the supplicants 
were left hungT)' and cokl on their hilly farms, 
waiting' for help which came slowK' and for 
crops which )'ielded but scantily. 

Wdioever institutes a comparison between 
the Palatines and the Pilgrims must remember 
the Pilorrims came to America, a compact soci- 
et)' fortified by friends at home soon to follow, 
Avhile the Palatines, beggared by the most 
terrible of re- 
ligious perse- 
cutions, were 
sent, as indi- 
viduals, b) 
Oueen Anne 
to her colon- 
ies, as to-day 
dependent 
children of the 
State are sent 
to the f a r 
West. They 
were absolute 
|)aupers. )■ e t 

such was their moral excellence that a writer 
on I )iiuh X'illage Communities on the Hudson 
River iiulircetU' commends these poor Ciermans. 




THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



114 Newbury h 



" From the banks of the Rhine the germ of free local 
institutions borne on the tide of western emigration 
found along the Hudson a more fruitful soil than New- 
England afforded for the growtii of those forms of munici- 
pal, state and national government which have made the 
United States the leading Republic among nations, and 
thus in a new and historically important sense may the 
Hudson river be called the Rhine of America." 

The patent granted the Lutherans known 
as the Palatine Parish by Quassaick contained 
within its boundaries forty acres for highways 
and five hundred for a Glebe. The Glebe is 
bounded by North Street on the north and by 
South Street on the south. Across its western 
border ran Liberty Street, then the King's 
Highway, although no king save Washington, 
who refused the title, ever trod its dust. The 
Glebe was " for the use of the Lutheran min- 
ister and his successors forever," but they 
really possessed it only about forty years, — 
thus liberally was "forever" interpreted two 
centuries ago. 

Here 's a church, and here 's a steeple, 
Here 's the minister and all the people," 

says the nurser)- rhyme. Here the evolution 
of a parish has for its germ the church and 
steeple, the minister and all the people be- 



New burgh 1 1 5 

ing a later development. The germ of this 
Lutheran parish was the minister, Joshua de 
Kockerthal/ whose missionary labors on both 
sides of the river cannot be overestimeited. 
After the minister came not the church nor the 
steeple, but the bell, a gift from no less a lady 
of quality than Queen Anne herself. It was 
highly prized by these Lutherans and loaned 



' Krn'AI'H OF JOSIIIA DK KOCKKKTIIAL, IN lURVING-GROL'M) AT 
SAUCKKTIKS, N. V. 

Wisse Wandersman Unter diesem Steine Rusht nebst Seiner Sil)ylla 
Cliarlotte Ein Rechter Wandersman Per Hoch Jeutsehen in Nord 
America ihr Josua und der selben an Der Ost and West seite Der Hud- 
son's River rein Lutherischer Prediger. Seine erste an Kunft war mit 
Lrd Lovelace, 1707-8, den i Januar. Seine sweite mit Col. Hunter 
1710 d. 14 Juny. Seine Englandische rue reise unterbrach Seine 
Seelen llimmelische reise an St. Johannis sage 17 19. Regherstu 
mehr Ku wissen So untersuche in Welaneh thons vaterland, Wer 
war de Kockerthal, Wer Harschias, Wcr Winchenbuch, B. Herken- 
mayer, S. Heurtin, L. lirevort. 

MDCC.XIJI. 

Know, Wanderer, under this stone rests beside his Sybilla Charlotte 
a right wanderer, the Joshua of the High Dutch in N. America, the 
pure Lutheran Preacher of them on the East and West side of the 
Hudson River. His first arrival was with Lord Lovelace in 1707, 
the first of January. Ills second with Colonel Hunter, 1710, the 
fourteenth of June. His voyage back to England was prevented 
(literally interrupted) by the voyage of his soul to Heaven, on St. 
John's Day. 1719. Do you wish to know more? .Seek in Melanc- 
thon's fatherland who was Kockerthal, who was Harschias, who 
Winchenbuch. B. Bcrkcnmayer, S. Heurtin, I,. Brivort. 1742. 



lib 



Newburgh 



to a church in New York on condition that 
" should we be able to build a church at our 
own expense at any time thereafter then the 
Lutheran Church of New York shall restore 

to us the same 
bell such as it 
now is or another 
of equal weight 
and value." 

The church 
was built prob- 
ably in I 730, and 
the Reverend 
Michael Christ- 
ian Knoll was 
appointed to 
minister in the 
parish, a part of 
his salary to be 
paid in cheeples 
of wheat, susten- 
a n c e certainly 
more nourishing than the codfish received by 
the minister on Cape Cod m lieu of pew-rent in 
gold coin of the realm. The church itself, 
wdiich was standing in 1846 within the memory 
of a few of Newburij'h's citizens, was about 




ANDREW J. DOWNING. 



Newburgh 117 

twenty feet square without floor or chimney. 
The roof ran up into a point from its four walls, 
and on the peak a small cupola was placed in 
which hung Queen Anne's bell. This bell, evi- 
dentl)- not cast in the mould of the one unal- 
terable Confession of Augsburg, but bewitched 
1)>- its donor with Episcopacy, presently rang 
out changes and ceased to "call the living, 
mourn the dead and break the lightning" ex- 
clusively in behalf of the German Lutherans. 

The English were now buying farms from 
the discouraged Germans whose complaint that 
their patent was all upland can hardl)- be 
denied by any one who, aided by a rope, climbs 
Newburgh's hill)- streets to-day. The story, 
however, that the United States Government 
located the city's post-ofifice on a shelf-like site 
so that shy lovers in search of a billet-doux need 
not call at the window but may look down 
the building's chimney from a street above is 
probably apocryphal. 

The Palatines abandoned Newburgh for a 
more fertile soil in IV-nnsylvania and else- 
where about I 747. The new-comers, who were 
mostU- of English nn^l Scotch descent, took 
their places, so that nothing remains to tell of 
the early settlers save the streets thev laid out 



Ti8 Newbureh 



fc>' 



and the church in the Old Town burying-ground 
whose site is now marked by Ouassaick Chap- 
ter, Daughters of the American Revolution.' 

According to history, the few remaining 
Lutherans did not give up their church without 
a struggle. On a certain bright July Sunday 
the two conereo^ations met, each with its 
minister at the head, accompanied by many 
people from both sides of the river and the 
Justices of the Peace who carried staves of 
office. Birgert Meynders, a burly blacksmith 
and bold defender of the Lutheran faith, fell 
crushed by the falling door, and then the jubi- 
lant Enoflish rushed in to hold the fort. It was 
after this memorable riot that the Reverend 
Hezekiah Watkins,^ a most excellent clergy- 

' On this Glebe site was erected about 1730 the Lutheran Church 
of the Palatine Parish by Ouassaick. Reverend Michael Christian 
Knoll, Pastor. 

From July 19, 1747, the Reverend Hezekiah Watkins of the 
CMiurch of England held services for about twenty-five years. 
Erected by Quassaick Chapter, 

Daughters of the American Revolution. 

- In Memory of 

reverend hezekiah watkins 

yale 1737 ordaineu 1 754 in england 

sent here by ven. soc. p. g. in f. p. 

founded the parishes of 

s. David's, s. Andrew's and s. george's 

RESIDENT MINISTER AT NEWBURGH 
FROM 1752 UNTIL HIS DE.VIH. 
APRIL 10, 1765. AET. 57. 

Tablet in S. George's Churcli, N'ervburgh. 




HENRY KIRKE BROWN. 



119 



I20 Newburgh 

man, preached his first sermon in Newburgh, 
possibly from a text in the psalter for the 
day, " Why do the heathen so furiously rage 
together ? " 

Legend says some Lutheran boys on a 
moonless August night stole the bell and 
buried it in a swamp where, punished for 
apostasy, it lay for years tongue-tied in the 
black mud while hoarse frogs croaked their 
pessimistic comments over it. The defeated 
Lutherans would doubtless have been pleased 
could they have foreseen half a century later 
when all that savored of England, were it 
book, bell or candle, was out of favor, the 
Anglicans in their turn ejected, the building 
used as a schoolhouse, and the rent of the 
Glebe lands pass entirely from the Church. 

The swamp in which the bell was hidden 
has of late years been transformed into one of 
Downing Park's lakes, and from its smooth 
waters one ma)' hear on summer evenings 
the ghostly tolling of bells, as bells toll in 
the buried cities beneath Swiss lakes. The 
tolling has a martial sound, a call to arms, as if 
the little bell had forgotten the smaller church 
squabble in the larger quarrel between King 
Georo-e and his Colonies. Some authorities 



Nc\vburg;h 121 

insist that the bell was dui;- up, and that it Lilatll)' 
used its lono- silent tongue in Freedom's cause 
as behooved a Libert)- Bell. It hun^- during- 
the present century, old inhabitants tell us, in 
the cupola of the Newburgh Acadeni)', and 
was at length sold and melted for a new one 
by an iconoclastic school Board. 

At the breaking out of the war for American 
Independence there were but a dozen or more 
houses on the Glebe, and a few to the south. 
Among these was the stone residence of Colo- 
nel lonathan Hasbrouck which had been built 
in part by I)irgert Meynders. Lieutenant 
Cadwallader Colden had his home near and 
there were many among his satellites willing to 
drink damnation to the Whigs when asked by 
the ever vigilant Committee of Safet\' to sign 
the pledge. 

It may be thought strange that Newburgh 
has been considered of great Revolutionar)- 
importance wh(Mi no battles were fought nearer 
its vicinit}- than those of Ston)- Point and P'orts 
Clinton and Montgomer)-, but, although the 
place had an hereditary tendenc\- to toryism. its 
geographical cnNironmcnt filled it to overflow- 
ing with plucky patriots. It is well known that 
it was the design of the British to get posses- 



12: 



Newburgh 



sion of the Hudson, and by cutting off the 
New England States to weaken the forces of 
the Continental Army. Appreciating this fact, 
Washington came up the river in 1776 as far 
as Constitution Island and, at the suggestion 
of Putnam, fortified West Point. Newburgh 
came under the same military direction, so 
that one leading officer after another made his 
headquarters in the vicinity. 

At Vail's Gate, four miles south of New- 
burgh, is the Thomas Ellison house built by 
John Ellison, the headquarters of Generals 
Knox, Green and Gates, and of Colonels Bid- 
die and Wadsworth. Here too the pretty Lucy 
Knox ofave a dance at which General Wash- 
ington tarried so late as to incur the displeasure 
of his wife. The names of Maria Golden, 
Gitty Wyncoop, and Sally Jensen, the belles 
of the ball, are scrawled on a window-pane in 
the dinina--room. 

Following Silver Stream down to Moodna 
Creek, three or four miles south of Newburgh, 
we find the Williams house, the residence of 
General Lafayette, in the cellar of which the 
Dutch loan lies buried past finding, while op- 
posite are the remains of the forge at which 
were made parts of the obstructions thrown 



124 



Newburgh 



across the river to prevent British ships from 
saihng up. 

Westward at Little Britain, six miles from 
Newburgh, is Mrs. Fall's house, the headquar- 
ters of George Clinton, and here on the floor 
is the stain where the spy who swallowed the 




CLINTON'S HEADQUARTERS AT LITTLE BRITAIN, NEAR NEWBURGH. 

bullet took the emetic and revealed the pro- 
posed treason. The old homestead of the 
Clinton family was in Little Britain, and hither 
James Clinton, after the attack on Forts Clin- 
ton and Montgomery, returned, his boots tilled 
with blood. One of his great-grandchildren 
relates that he entered the dining-room where 



Nc\\burL;h 125 

the family were eating breakfast, and request- 
ing- his mother and sisters to retire lest they 
faint from tin; sight of his wounds, as was the 
habit of gentlewomen of the last centurw told 
the story of his escapt- to his father. The statue 
of his distinguished brother, George,' stands in 
Newburgh's business centre on the Square 
which oddh- enough bears the name of Golden, 
the leading family of colonial days. The dis- 
tinguished Goldens, although not patriots, 
added a lustre to the town, and the Glintons 
will not quarrel with their shades. 

Mad Anthony Wayne, the Rough Rider of 
his day, had his headquarters on the Glebe 
near the present corner of Liberty Street and 

' CiEORCK Cl.IXroN 

Mr.MHKR OF CON IINKNTAI. CONCKESS 
I775-I777 

i;ri(^.ai)IER-gknerai. continental arm V 

1777 

GOVERNOR OK PIIK STAIK OK NEW YORK 

1777-85— 18OI-4 

VICE-PRESIDENT OK THE UNITED STATES 

1S04-1S12 

Cara Patria Carior Libertas. 

Inscription on Clinton Statue in Coklen Square, Ne\vl)urgh. 
•Statue by Henry Kirke Brown. Presented to the city liy the His- 
torical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands and other citi- 
zens. Unveiled on the iigth anniversary of the battles of Forts 
Clinton and Montgomery in the Highlands. 



126 



Newburgh 



Broad. Weigand's tavern, with the whipping- 
post in front of the door, a rendezvous of 

soldiers, stood on 
Liberty Street 
not far from the 
Lutheran Church. 
Revolutionary 
interest in New- 
burgh focuses on 
the coming of 
Washington t o 
the Hasbrouck 
house in March, 
I 782, although re- 
cent research dis- 
credits the story 
pictured on the 
covers of our 
copybooks in 
school days of the 
disbanding of the 
whole Continen- 
tal army on these 
grounds. In 1779-80 Washington had lived 
in the Ellison house, no longer standing, in 
New Windsor, a small village to the south 
on the river, separated froni Newburgh 




CLINTON STATUE IN GOLDEN SQUARE, 
AT NEWBURGH. 



Newburgh ' - 7 

proper by the Ouassaick Creek, but after the 
surrender of Yorktown, he and his family 
with his staff became the guests of Colonel 
Jonathan Hasbrouck in the stone house, on 
the corner of Washington and Liberty Streets. 
Here Washington wrote his reply to the 
Nicola letter, which in i)opular parlance of- 
fered him the crown. Here is the chair in 
which he sat when he took his pen in hand 
and dipped it in ink to put on paper words 
which after more than a hundred years glow 
with the fervor of their author's single-hearted 
purpose. 

Newiukch, May 22<l. 17S2. 

CoLOM-.L Lkwis Nicola, 

Sir : — With a mixture of great surprise and astonish- 
ment, I have read with attention the sentiments you have 
submitted to my perusal. Be assured, sir, no occurrence 
in the course of the War, has given me more painful 
sensations than your information of there being such 
ideas existing in the army as you have expressed, and I 
must view with abhorrence and reprehend with severity. 
For the present the communication of them will rest in 
my own bosom, unless some further agitation of the 
matter shall make a disclosure necessary. 

I am much at a loss to conceive what part of my con- 
duct could have given encouragement to an address, 
which to me seems big with the greatest mischiefs that 
can befall mv countrv. If 1 am not deceived in the 



128 New 1)11 r^h 

knowledge of myself, you could not have found a person 
to whom your schemes are more disagreeable. At the 
same time, in justice to my own feelings, I must add that 
no man possesses a more sincere wish to see amjile 
justice done to the army than I do, and so far as my 
powers and influence, in a constitutional way, extend, 
they shall be employed to the utmost of my abilities to 
effect it, should there be any occasion. Let me conjure 
you then, if you have any regard for your country, con- 
cern for yourself, or j)Osterity, or respect for me, to 
banish these thoughts from your mind, and never com- 
municate, as from yourself or anyone else, a sentiment 
of the like nature. With esteem, I am sir, 

Vour most obedient servant, 

G. Washington. 

Leaving Washinoton's Headquarters at 
Newburgh one turns southward and crosses 
Ouassaick Creek, at one time known as the 
\'ale of Avoca, to hear above the whirr of to- 
day's many intersecting- railroads the echoes of 
Indian paddles. It is said the ghosts of Indians 
still linger here in their canoes waiting to carr)- 
awav Washington, for near is the site of the 
Ettrick house whose host treacherously invited 
the Commander-in-Chief to dinner with intent 
to kidnap him. 

" General, you are my prisoner," said Mr. 
Ettrick, pushing aside his wine-glass and rising 
from the table. 







1 

1 








wuJi 


BaLS^^^HC^^HBBf ^ 




1*1 








'^j^HHuIb 








JlF 


P^:^: 




\^.'^ 


^'m^^^m 


^K'Ml^" 


fc ., 


STi JP*- - ^-i«^- "*eL_ 


^9Rr- -Tirr wc- 


m 


H 


maMMfj' 


m 


i 










y' "' 




IHSwmSj^ ' .JHSIHh 



I ^o 



Newburgh 



" Pardon me, sir, but you are mine," was the 
quiet answer, and instantl)- the hfe-guards 
appeared and poor Ettrick was put in chains, 




MONUMENT ON TEMPLE HILL, NEAR NEWBURGH. 

his pretty daughter escaping on account of the 
timely warning she had given her father's 
guest. 

Standing on the slopes of Snake Hill, to 
the west of Newburgh, where was the last can- 



Newbur<'h 



I ^^I 



'tonment of the American Army on the site of 
the Temple, a building used for Sunday ser- 
vices, for Masonic purposes and as a gather- 
ing-place for social entertainment, a site now 
marked by a 
monument, 
one h e a r s 
again those 
words spoken 
bv Wash in or- 
ton when in 
March, 1783, 
the circula- 
tion of the 
X e w burg h 
letters caused 
unrest among 
the unpaid 
troops. 

"You see, gentlemen," he said as he arose to read his 
address, putting on his spectacles as he spoke, " that I 
have not only grown grey but blind in your service. . . . 

" Let me conjure you," he continued, " by the name of 
our common country, as you value your own sacred honor, 
as you respect the rights of humanity, as you regard the 
military and national character of America, to express 
your utmost horror and detestation of the man who 
wishes under any sjiecious jiretense to overturn the 




THE VERPLANCK HOUSE. 

BARON STEUBEN'S HEADQUARTERS, WHERE THE "nICOLA 
LETTER " WAS WRITTEN. 



132 Newburg'h 



liberties of our country and who wickedly attempts to 
open the flood-gates of civil discord. . . . 

By thus determining and thus acting you will persue the 
plain and direct road to the attainment of your wishes 

. . you will by the dignity of your conduct afford 
occasion to posterity to say when speaking of the glorious 
example }OU have exhibited to mankind, ' Had this day 
been wanting, the world had never seen the last stage 
of perfection to which human nature is capable of 
attaining.' " 

Crossing" the river by the ferry sloop to 
Fishkill one finds in this Revohitionar}- centre 
of miHtary suppHes much of interest. Here 
were Baron Steuben's headquarters in the 
Verplanck house, where the Nicola letter was 
written and the Society of Cincinnatus in part 
was formed ; here at Swartwoutville the head- 
quarters of Washington ; here on the Wicopee, 
in the James \^an \\ yck house, the residence 
of John I a)', and at Brinkerhoff, in the home 
of Matthew Brinkerhoff, the roof which 
sheltered Lafayette when he lay ill of a fever. 
The Dutch Church in Fishkill has been made 
famous l)y Cooper's Spy. Trinit)' Church was 
a hospital, and on the banks of the Hudson at 
Presqu' He one rests under the oak which 
shaded Washinoton when he waited for his 
letters to be brought to him from Newbureh. 



134 



Newbureh 



" I cannot tell what you say, green leaves, 
I cannot tell what you say ; 
But I know that in you a spirit doth live 
And a message to me this day." 

Is it not a messag;e of courage and patriot- 
ism which hves on in the descendants of the 

Hasbroucks, 

the Belknaps, 
the WilHamses, 
the Fowlers, the 
Deyos, the 
Townsends, the 
Carpenters, the 
Weicrands ana 
others whose 
rjcords embla- 
zon the pages of 
Newburgh's his- 
i tor)- ? 

In this last 
century not only 
material wealth 
has come to 
Newburgh, but 
the richest treasures of the town have been 
brought hither by its idealists, men to whom 
has been o^ranted the crift of vision. Among 




CHARLES DOWNrNQ. 



Newburo-h 



I ; 



JO 



these are numbered preachers, poets, artists, 
historians, noveHsts, physicians, lawyers and 
philanthropists, and on this roll of honor are 
written the names of the Reverend John For- 
sythe, N. P. Willis, H. K. Brown, A. J. Down- 
ing, S. \V, Eager, E. M. Ruttenber, J. T. 
Headley, E. P. Roe, Carroll Dunham, E. A. 
Brewster and Charles Downing. 



i^^^^i^^x 










TARRYTOWN-ON-HUDSON 

ITS HISTORIC ASSOCIATIONS AND LhGHNDARY 
LORH 

By HAMILTON WklGliT MABIE 

T^.\kk\"IO\V\-ON -Tin:- HUDSON is 
1 interesting from man)' points of view. It 
is beautiful in itself, with a touch of that ripe, 
okl-world beauty which is the rich deposit of a 
lonj^ association of man with nature ; a beauty 
which reveals its depth in the fulness of foli- 
age, the L,nrth of ancient trees, the texture ot 
the ,!^^rass, and that atmosphere of ancient and 
familiar use which, althoui^di invisible and im- 
palpable, lends a j^eculiar charm to settled 
towns and countries. I'or Tarrytown has a 
long history — as histor\- is reckoned in thi> 
new world — and an ancient date. It wears 
th<- air of a locality which was in full life in 
Colonial times. The old houses are f.-w. but 



13^ Tarrytown-on-Hudson 

the modern village is embowered in a land- 
scape which has known human companionship 
and care these two centuries and more. A 
road may show the latest skill in road-making, 
but if it was once a highway along which 
coaches ran in the brave days of the old inns 
and the ancient whips and hostlers, there is 
always the suggestion of long use about it. 
It has been for so many decades a part of the 
landscape that nature seems to have had a 
hand in its makintr. The erass o-rows down 
to it and the earth slopes away from it as if 
these things had always been as they are. No 
one can walk through Tarrytown along its 
chief thoroughfare, without recognizing on 
every hand the signs of the old highway on 
which coach horns were once heard, and 
later the bustles ranor as redcoats flashed 
throuo-h the trees or marched alone the 
ancient way. 

The village rises from the water's edoe to 
the summit of the low hill which runs parallel 
with the eastern shore of the Hudson for 
many miles ; it has one main thoroughfare, 
bisected by many cross streets of a later date ; 
it is, for the most part, carefully kept, as befits 
its age, its intelligence, and its wealth ; and. 



140 Tarry to\\n-on-Hudson 

looked at from the river, it is almost buried in 
a wealth of foliage. It has at all times an 
air of repose, as if it had done long- ago with 
the hard work of settlement and organization, 
and had earned exemption from the rush and 
turmoil which characterize new communities. 
In this country a town which has passed its 
bicentennial has a right to conduct life with a 
certain dignity and repose. It is doubtful if 
I arrytown ever knew any great bustle or 
uproar ; from the beginning it is probable that 
its inhabitants did not suffer themselves to be 
driven into undue energy of mood or habit, 
A placid temper, a disposition to keep on easy 
terms with life and neither give nor ask more 
than becomes a man of a quiet habit of mind, 
have left their impress on the community. It 
is a place in which history is preserved rather 
than made, although when it had occasion to 
make history, the work was done with pictur- 
esque effectiveness. 

When Hendrik Hudson broke the quiet 
waters of the Tappan Zee for the first time, 
in September, 1609, with the keel of the Half- 
Moon, he saw along the eastern shore of the 
noble river which was to bear his name an 
unbroken forest. The region was singularly 



Tarrytown-on-Hudson 141 

beautiful, with a stillness which it has not 
wholly lost ; for rivers carrying deep currents 
always convey an imprc?ssion of stillness. ^Ir. 
Curtis has spoken of the lyrical beauty of the 
Rhine and the epical beauty of the Hudson ; 
the first passing, with ripid movement, through 
a long series of striking and romantic local- 
ities, the second flowing sedately through a 
landscape of larger compass, of more massive 
composition, of a beauty sustained through a 
hundred and fifty miles of noble scenery. It 
is, of course, a matter of pure fancy ; but there 
seems to have been some kinship between the 
men who settled the continent and the localities 
they chose for their homes. The hardy French 
adventurers were peculiarly at home along the 
St. Lawrence and the trails from the Great 
Lakes to the Mississippi ; the stern soil of New 
England would not have given its rare smile to 
men of a temper less strenuous than that of 
the Puritan and Pilgrim ; the waterways of the 
James, the Potomac, and the Chesapeake lent 
themselves readily to the habits and occupa- 
tions of English gentlemen in the new world ; 
Florida and Louisiana seemed to find their 
elect explorers and settlers in the Spanish 
adventurers antl gold-seekers; while the quiet 



142 Tarry town-on-Hudson 

of the Hudson was hardly broken when the 
Dutch settlers betran to till the land north of 
Manhattan Island and to build their substantial 
homes. They could be voluble and noisy 
when occasion required, but they were of a 
phlegmatic temper and leisurely by habit. 

The reports sent abroad by Hudson's men 
when they found themselves once more in 
Holland in the late autumn of 1609, were re- 
peated and passed from town to town among 
merchants who were as eager for trade as they 
were stolid in manner. Small ships were soon 
plying westward, bent upon trade with the 
well disposed Indians whom Hudson found 
scattered from Manhattan Island to the place 
where Albany now stands. The possibilities 
of profit in the fur trade were quickly dis- 
covered by these shrewd merchants ; the 
nucleus of a settlement was made on the 
island, and rude huts hastily put together were 
the beginnings of one of the greatest of 
modern cities. The traders bought furs, to- 
bacco, and corn in exchange for trinkets and 
rum ; they hunted, fished, and lived after the 
manner of their time and kind, but for the 
most part on good terms with their Indian 
neighbors ; at long intervals tiny ships from the 



Tarry town-on- Hudson 143 

old world crept into the harbor, and went 
back again laden with the skins of the beaver, 
the otter, and the sable. In 1621 the West 
India Company received a charter from the 
States-General of Holland, with the monopoly 
of the American trade, and a grant of the 
vast territory discovered by Hudson, which 
was called the New Netherlands. The oreat 
trading company, one of a small group of 
commercial organizations of almost sovereign 
powers in the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
turies, drew its profits not only from barter with 
Indians, but from the sacking of cities on the 
Spanish Main and the capture of Spanish 
treasure-ships. 

In 1624 families arrived on the island and 
community life began in New Amsterdam ; two 
years later the first governor of the Colony 
arrived with a company who brought their 
wives, children, cattle, and household o-oods of 
all kinds with them and, by giving these hos- 
tages to fortune, committed themselves irrev- 
ocably to the new w^orld and its destinies. 
Manhattan Island was bought from the In- 
dians for twenty-four dollars, and the name of 
New Amsterdam reminded the settlers of their 
blood and their history. It was not, however,. 



144 Tarry town-on-Hudson 

until Peter Stuyvesant took up the reins of 
government with a firm hand and in a some- 
what choleric temper that the little commu- 
nity ceased to be a trading-post and became a 
Dutch colonial town. The first comers were 
largely penniless ; the later comers were men 
of position and substance. Many races were 
soon represented in the new town, but the 
Dutch remained for many years the ruling class. 
In 1664 the Colony passed into English hands 
and New Amsterdam became New York. 

The territory north of the island early at- 
tracted attention, and enero^etic and far-seeino- 
men set about acquiring title and adding acre 
to acre until great estates were created. In 
Westchester County, which then bounded the 
city of New York on the north, six manors, 
including the greater part of its territory, were 
granted ; that of Fordham leading the way in 
1 67 1. The largest of these manors were Phil- 
lipsburgh and Cortlandt, and Tarr^'town be- 
came the residence of a great landowner who 
secured manorial rights in 1693. This terri- 
torial magnate, a true lord of the manor so far 
as greatness of estate was concerned, was a 
man of humble birth, and a carpenter by trade. 
He came to New Amsterdam in 1647, and be- 



Tarrytown-on-H nelson 145 

in^' a man of sa^acit)' and forcsii^ln, soon found 
his chance in the opportunities of the new- 
world, became a fur trader, married a ricli 
widow, and in course ot time became probabh' 
the richest man in the Colony. Wedryk hdypse, 
or Frederick Philips.' knew how to take occa- 
sion b)- the hand when English rule was estab- 
lished in New York. He foresaw the increased 
value of the lands along the Hudson, and in 
1680. l)y the hrst of a series of grants, pieced 
out by A'arious purchases, he became the 
owner of a noble domain, stretching from 
Spuyten Duyvil to the old Kill of Kitchawong, 
or Croton, and from the Hudson to the Hronx. 
The Dutch settlers in the new world were less 
adventurous than their fellows of English and 
French blood, but they had early established 
trading-posts as far north on the Hudson as the 
present site of Albany, and they had crept 
quietly uj) the eastern shore of the ri\-er, and 
small farms were beginning to break the long- 
line of forest. The beginnings of Tarr\town 
probably date back as far as 1645, but ol its 
earliest hist()r\- no authentic records remain. 
In 1683, when b'rederick Philips began the 

' TIr- ih;ii)i;(.- from \'re<lrvk FlyiiM.- to Krederiik I'liilips w.Ts syii- 
chroiiouslv niadc — hotli iiaim-'- hcini' cluinj'cd at tlu- sanii.- time. 



146 Tarry town-on- Hudson 

building^ of a manor-house on the quiet Po- 
cantico, he found a small community of farm- 
ers, living in a quiet, frugal way, and carrying 
on the business of life with thrift and industry 
but in a spirit of great tranquillity. The broad 
waters of Tappan Zee could hardly have 
caught the reflection of the primitive farm- 
houses hidden among the trees. These houses 
were unpretentious in dimension and appear- 
ance, but they had a substantial air. There 
was nothing provisional in the aspect of the 
scattered settlement ; it struck tenacious roots 
into the soil from the very start. 

" In the bosom of one of those spacious coves which 
indent the eastern shore of the Hudson," writes Irving, 
in his vein of quiet humor, " at that broad expan- 
sion of the river denominated by the ancient Dutch 
navigators Tappan Zee, and where they always prudently 
shortened sail, and im])lored the protection of St. Nich- 
olas when they crossed, there lies a small market-town 
or rural port, which by some is called Greensburgh, but 
which is more generally and properly known as Tarry 
Town. This name was given, we are told, in former 
days, by the good housewives of the adjacent country, 
from the inveterate propensity of their husbands to linger 
about the village tavern on market days." 

This derivation of the name of the delightful 
town which Irving loved so well, has probably 



Tarry town-on- Hudson 147 

as much authority behind it as many deriva- 
tions which have come to be unquestioned ; 
but if Irving's genial humor leaves some 
sceptics dissatisfied, they may take refuge in 
an alternative derivation, which traces the 
modern name to the more credible legend that 
one Terry was the earliest settler, whose name 
became fastened upon the little hamlet first as 
Terry's town, which afterwards was naturally 
metamorphosed into Tarrytown. Be this as 
it may, a spirit of peace seems to have reigned 
in the region from the beginning, and the 
sturdy Dutch farmers kept the peace with 
their Indian neighbors. There are no tra- 
ditions of midnight alarms in the early story 
of the community. Indian canoes were seen 
for many a year on Tappan Zee, and it is said 
that Indian hands assisted in raising the walls 
of the quaint and venerable church which still 
keeps watch over its earliest worshippers in 
the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. These pioneer 
settlers had few wants, and supplied them with 
home-made articles or hand-woven fabrics. 
Manhattan Island was too distant in time to 
be accessible for daily supplies ; shops were 
still to come ; and the peddler, with whose 
figure and habits Cooper was subs«'([uently to 



148 Tarry to\vn-on-Hudson 

make the whole world acquainted, distributed 
finery and small wares throuyi'h the section. 

Under the royal grant and license which au- 
thorized Frederick Philips to acquire certain 
tracts of land in Westchester County, says an 
old chronicler, the grantee agreed " to let any 
one settle on said land free, for certain stipu- 
lated years, in order that it should as soon as 
possible be cultivated and settled." These 
terms seem to have been accepted by the few 
settlers already on the ground, and by others 
who were attracted by the impulse which the 
lord of the manor (for such Philips was in in- 
fluence and authority) gave to local industry. 
The great estate was not secured in a day ; it 
was consolidated by a series of purchases cov- 
ering a period of years, and among these pur- 
chases was the site of the present village of 
Tarrytown, which was paid for in rum, cloth, 
tobacco, and hardware. The great proprietor 
laid the foundations of permanent community 
life by building, within a comparatively short 
time, a mill, a manor-house, and a church. 
The Pocantico flows into the Hudson just be- 
yond the northern boundary of the Tarrytown 
of to-day ; and on the shores of the quiet bay 
which puts in at that i)oint, protected by a 




THE POCANTICO RIVER. 

FROM A PHOTOGRAPH. 



150 Tarry town-on- Hudson 

long and heavily wooded promontory which 
extends well into the river, Philips chose a 
sheltered and beautiful site for his home. His 
own ships brou2;ht building materials from 
Holland and unloaded them on the wharf 
built on the premises. The architecture of 
the manor-house was of the Dutch order so 
familiar along the Hudson ; the heavy walls 
were of stone ; the roof was spread on great 
hand-hewn rafters ; the doors were divided 
into upper and lower sections, and swung on 
ponderous hinges ; from the end of the wide 
hall, stairs ascended by easy rises to the 
upper floor. Through openings in the foun- 
dation walls on the southwest side small how- 
itzers commanded the approach by land or 
water. A mill was quite as essential as a 
house, and the substantial structure which 
still resists the assaults of time in placid old 
age, bears witness to the thoroughness with 
which Philips did whatever fell to his hand. 
Beside its ancient pond the venerable mill 
still witnesses to a past which cannot be 
wholly lost while the little group of buildings 
remains. 

To complete this interesting group, which 
Tarrytown ought to preserve with pious care, 




UJ o 
CO £ 



152 Tarryto\vn-on-Hiidson 

and at no great distance from the manor- 
house, stands the old Dutch church, one of 
the most quaint and best preserved monu- 
ments of early history on the continent. He 
would be a bold man who would venture to 
state definitely the date at which the building 
of this ancient edifice was begun ; on that 
point a wide latitude must be permitted and 
tiiscreet silence preserved. It answers all 
purposes of intelligent curiosity to be told 
that the foundations were probably laid as 
early as 1684, and that the building was com- 
pleted, probably, not later than 1697. The bell 
which still hangs in the little steeple and which 
may be heard on quiet Sunday afternoons in 
the late summer or early autumn, when serv- 
ices are held in the ancient structure, was 
cast in 1685, and bears the inscription, "Si 
Deus pro nobis quis contra nos." The church 
was built with characteristic solidity, the walls 
being more than two feet thick ; a great pul- 
pit with a sounding-l)oard projected from the 
eastern end ; the benches on which the con- 
ereeation sat were without backs ; and the 
doctrine expounded from the sacred desk was 
of a kindred soundness of fibre. Some con- 
cession to human weakness was shown to the 




l" ^ 



I z 
I i 



154 Tarrytown-on-Hudson 

lord of the manor, in the comfortable and im- 
posing arrangement of the large pews on the 
right and left of the minister. The farmers 
filled the body of the little church, while slaves, 
redemptioners, and other obscure persons, with 
the choir, sat in the tiny gallery. In 1697, the 
Rev. Guiliam Bertholf began a kind of visi- 
torial ministry in the new church, coming three 
or four times a year to preach and administer 
the sacraments. He was a native of Sluis, in 
Holland, emigrated to the new world in 1684, 
and became a preacher nine years later. His 
ability and zeal gave him wide influence, and 
he was instrumental in organizing a number of 
churches of the Reformed faith and order. 
From this initial ministry until the present 
time, although the congregation has moved to 
a larger and modern edifice, the succession of 
faithful preachers has never been broken, and 
the historic pulpit of Tarrytown has never 
been more thoroughly identified with generous 
devotion, high character, and unusual gifts of 
nature and speech than during the last twenty- 
five years. During the stormy years of the 
Revolution the church was frequently closed ; 
and at the close of the struggle the trappings 
which had distinguished the pews of the lord 




O cr S 
O en 



156 Tarrytown-on-Hudson 

of the manor were torn down, and elders and 
deacons sitting in the seats once set apart for 
the local aristocracy emphasized the triumph 
of the democratic idea in Church and State. 
Not long- afterwards another innovation was 
made by the substitution of English for Dutch 
in the services. 

In October, 1897, the two hundredth anni- 
versary of the church was celebrated with 
services which recalled, with unusual com- 
pleteness, the varied and instructive history 
of the old building and of the community. 

The modern village lies to the south of 
the church, which is hidden beneath ancient 
trees, and is still enveloped in an atmosphere 
of old-time silence and repose. The Pocantico 
flows beside it, almost unseen when the mid- 
summer foliage is spread over it ; while to the 
north, climbing a gentle slope and sinking 
softly down to the brook, is the ancient 
burying-ground, in which the first interments 
were made about 1645. The place is singularly 
peaceful and of a rare and gentle beauty ; the 
gradual slope dotted with ancient graves, pro- 
tected on the east by wooded heights, overhung 
with old trees, and commanding on the west 
glimpses of the broad expanse of the Tappan 



Tarrytow n-on-Hudson j 57 

Zee, and, from its higher levels, the tree-em- 
bowered village, the longf line of shininsf water, 
and the distant front of the Palisades. There 
is probably no other locality in America, tak- 
ing into account history, tradition, the old 
church, the manor-house, and the mill, which 
so entirely conserves the form and spirit of 
Dutch civilization in the new world. This 
group of buildings ranks in historic interest, if 
not in historic importance, with Paneuil Hall, 
Independence Hall, the ruined church tower 
at Jamestown, the old gateway at St. Augus- 
tine, and the Spanish cabildo on Jackson Square 
in New Orleans ; and the time will come when 
pilgrimages will be made to this ancient and 
beautiful home of some of those ideals and 
habits of life which have given form and struc- 
ture to American civilization. 

It was the misfortune of larrytown to lie in 
the path of both armies for many dreary 
months during the Revolution ; and no sec- 
tion of the countr)- felt the uncertainty and 
terrors of war more keenly. When Cooper 
looked about for an American subject for his 
second novel, his interest in the liistory oi 
Westchester County, in the lower part ot 
which he was for a numl)crof )ears a resident, 



158 Tarry town-on- Hudson 

led him to a fortunate choice, and The Spy re- 
mains not only one of the best of American 
novels of incident, but a vivid report of the 
suspense and misery of the country between 
the Highlands of the Hudson, held by the 
American forces, and the city of New York in 
the hands of the British. That section was 
mercilessly harried by friend and foe. The 
few families which made the little hamlet of 
Tarrytown, never knew whether the Skinners 
or the Cowboys would appear next ; the only 
certainty in the situation seems to have been 
that, sooner or later, whatever was portable 
and valuable would be carried off. There 
was much quiet courage in the form of patient 
endurance in those years when church and 
school were closed, crops gathered by hands 
that had not sown, houses burned in the dead 
of night, and all normal community life at an 
end. Caught in the centre of the storm of 
war, Tarrytown not only suffered severely but 
bore her losses with conspicuous fortitude and 
courage. In many sudden forays, as well as 
in the larger movements of the American 
forces, the men of Tarrytown played their parts 
with notable pluck and daring. 

The devotion of a majority of the people of 




MONUMENT TO THE CAPTORS OF ANDRE. 

FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY F. AHRENS. 



159 



i6o Tarrytown-on-Hudson 

the place to the American cause had its re- 
ward in the lasting association of the town 
with the most romantic and tragic episode of 
the war ; and the incorruptible patriotism of 
three Westchester County men not only 
averted what might have been a crushing- 
calamity, but immortalized the scene of their 
resistance to temptation. On the 24th day of 
September, 1780, Major Andre, bearing dis- 
patches of a treasonable nature from General 
Benedict Arnold, then in command of the 
American forces at West Point, was captured 
on the highway at a place now marked by a 
monument, by John Paulding, David W^illiams, 
and Isaac Van Wart. These obscure militia- 
men, soon to become famous, were watching 
the road, when a horseman appeared riding 
toward the south. He was promptly chal- 
lentred, ordered to dismount, and examined as 
to his business and destination. His answers 
to the questions put to him by his captors 
confirmed their suspicion that something of 
unusual importance was in the air. The de- 
termination to search the unfortunate young 
officer more thoroughly was met with offers 
of a large sum of money ; but the militiamen 
were not to be bribed, and to their fidelit\' is 



l62 



Tarry to\vn-on-Hudson 



due the discovery of the plot to place West 
Point in British hands. The moral effect of 
Arnold's fall was counteracted in large meas- 
ure by the incorruptibility of Andre's captors, 
and the monu- 
m e n t w h i c h 
marks this his- 
toric site com- 
memorates the 
integrity of the 
American mili- 
tiamen quite as 
much as the dra- 
matic episode 
which ended the 
careers of Arn- 
old and Andre. 

T ar r yt ow n 
has h a d the 
double good for- 
tune to be the scene of the most striking act ot 
the drama of Arnold's treason, and to be the cus- 
todian of one of the few American legends. In 
his youth, Washington Irving knew the region 
intimately. He was given to solitary walks, 
for he was a dreamer by nature and habit. 
Wolfert's Roost was even then an old farm- 




WASHINGTON IRVING. 



164 Tarry town-on- Hudson 

house, built close to the water's edge, where 
the glen broadens to the river. It had colonial 
and revolutionary associations, and, above all, it 
had the charm of a situation of singular beauty. 
Irving seems early to have fallen under the spell 
of the shaded waterside and the romantic Q-\en. 
In 1835, after an absence of seventeen years 
in Europe and an extensive journey through 
the South and West, which bore fruit in A 
Tour on the Prairies, the recollections and 
affections of his youth drew him to Sunnyside, 
now about a mile and a half south of the rail- 
way station of Tarrytown, and he became the 
possessor of a home which will always be asso- 
ciated with our early literar)' history. The 
house was enlaro^ed, and beo-an to take on that 
air of ripe and reposeful beauty which made it 
an ideal home for a man of letters. Under 
this roof his later books were written, and here 
he was sought by the most interesting men of 
his time. 

Irving's familiarit)- with the Hudson River 
and its historical associations had already 
borne fruit in the Sketch-Book in two original 
and characteristic legends. Like his illustrious 
contemporary, Sir Walter Scott. Irving was a 
born lover of traditions of all sorts ; a man with 



1 66 Tarry town-on- Hudson 

a genius for getting the poetry and romance 
out of the past. In The History of New Voi^k, 
impersonated in Diedrich Knickerbocker, he 
created a legend ; in Rip Van Winkle and The 
Legend of Sleepy Hollow he gave lasting fame 
to two stories full of the Dutch spirit. Sleepy 
Hollow lies to the north and east of Tar- 
rytown, within easy walking distance. It is 
still secluded and quiet and the stir of mod- 
ern times has not broken in upon its ancient 
seclusion. 

" A small brook glides through it, with just murmur 
enough to lull one to repose ; and the occasional whistle 
of a quail, or tapping of a woodpecker, is almost the only 
sound that ever breaks in upon the uniform tranquillity. 
A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over 
the land, and to pervade the very atmospliere. Some say 
that the place was bewitched by a high German doctor, 
during the early days of the settlement ; others, that an 
old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, held 
his pow-wows there before the country was discovered by 
Master Hendrick Hudson. Certain it is, the place 
still continues under the sway of some witching power, 
that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, 
causing them to walk in a continual dream." 

Since the days when these words were writ- 
ten the air of Sleepy Hollow has not escaped the 
general stirring of a more hurried age ; but on 



Tarry to wn-on-Hudson 167 

summer afternoons the meditative visitor still 
finds the valley a place of silence and peace. 
The master of the spell which has brought so 
many pilgrims to Tarrytown sleeps in the 
ancient graveyard ; the home which he loved 
with a love deepened by years of exile, still 
stands, somewhat enlarged, but not despoiled 
of its secluded and ivy-clad loveliness. 

Great estates have been formed about Tar- 
rytown and stately homes line the shores of 
the river, but the place has kept something of 
its old simplicity and repose. It has never 
lacked the presence of those to whom its tra- 
ditions of refined social habit and generous 
intellectual life have been sacred ; and its dis- 
tinction is still to be foimd in an atmosphere 
which is in no sense dependent on its later 
and larger prosperity. 



NEW YORK CITY 



THE COSMOPOLITAN CITY 



Rv lOSEPH B. GIl.DER 



BY comparison with London, Xcw York is 
a city of the second size, lacking some 
millions of the population of the modern 
Babylon. Even Paris, though less popu- 
lous, outranks the American metropolis in 
man)- of the elements that go to the making 
of a great cit\-. P)Ut in drawing these com- 
parisons it must be remembered that only 
three centuries ago, wdien the French and Eng- 
lish capitals had be(m places of importance 
for over a thousand years. New York was a 
wooded island, criss-crossed by innumerable 
streams, indented by morasses and infested 
l)y Indians and wild beasts. European civil- 
ization was wrinkled with age long before a 
jxrnianent roof was erected on the island of 
Manhattan ; and three li\es such as that ot 



170 



New York City 



ex-Mayor Tiemann, who died here in his 
ninety-fifth year, in the summer of 1899, 
would have spanned the entire history of the 
town from the Dutch discovery to the reign 
of Richard Croker. 

The first white man's habitation in what is 
now New York was a grrave ; for the crew of 
Hudson's Half Moon, after their fight with 

the aboriofines on 
the mainland above 
S p u y t e n Duyvil 
Creek, in Septem- 
ber, 1609, buried 
their dead before sail- 
ing homeward from 
their voyage of dis- 
covery up the great 
river named for their 
commander. 
Four temporary dwellings, presumably little 
better than wigwams, housed Skipper Block 
and the crew of the Tiger near the lower end 
of the island, while they rebuilt their burned 
vessel, during the winter of 161 3-14. The 
site of the present city was bought from the 
Indians on May 6, 1626, for trinkets worth 
sixty guilders, or four-and-twenty dollars — 




FIRST SEAL OF CITY. 1623-1654. 




MAP OF ORIGINAL GRANTS. 



171 



I 12 



New York City 



less than one tenth of the rate paid a few 
years since for a single square foot of land. 
Building was begun at once and pushed with 
vigor. Fort Amsterdam — a blockhouse partly 
shielded by palisades — -marked the extreme 
southern limit of the island ; and the first 
bark-roofed cottages were clustered close to- 
gether under its harmless, necessary guns. 
A warehouse with stone walls and a thatched 
roof sprang up as soon as a stronghold had 
been built ; and a horse-mill, with a loft fitted 
up for the simplest form of religious services. 

Fort Amsterdam was a fortress in name 
only. vScarcely had it been completed when 
it began to fall into disrepair ; and the pigs 
were forever rootin^r in its sodded earthworks, 
and threatening its very foundations. Thus 
early was it that these four-footed scavengers 
made their appearance in the history of New 
York, playing as picturesque, though not as 
patriotic, a part therein as that of the legend- 
ary Roman geese. Not till well forward in 
the present century did they disappear from 
the streets and the annals of the city. 

Peter Minuit, the first Director of New 
Netherlands to hold his place for more than a 
year, and the first to organize a permanent 



New York City i '/2> 

provincial o;overnincnt, sent home hopeful re- 
ports, and backed them with shipments of fur 
and timber ; but the expenses of administering 
the colony ultimately exceeded its earnings, 
and the West India Company was disap- 
pointed of the revenue it had counted upon 
receiving from the new settlement. 

The little village grew but slowly. When 
it had spread so far northward as the line of 
what is now Wall Street — which is so far down- 
town to-day that many a New York woman, 
nati\e-born, has yet to see it for the hrst time 
— a stockade was set up across the island, 
narrower then than now, to fence off the 
village from the farms (bouweries) of the more 
adventurous pioneers, and the forest that 
bordered them. This defense, completed in 
1653, consisted of palisades and posts, twelve 
feet high, with a sloping breastwork of earth 
and a ditch on its southern side. In less than 
two years its height was doubled to keep the 
Indians from leaping over it. 

But neither the Fort with its stone guns, 
nor this high wooden wall, was ever called 
upon to withstand a vigorous attack or resist a 
siege ; for whenever the place was seriously 
threatened, its flag canu- fluttering down, and 



New York City 175 

its keys were turned over to the enemy. Tliis 
happened first in Aufjust, 1664, when Col. 
Richard Nicolls appeared in tlie bay, as de- 
puty of the Duke of York, to whom Charles 
II. had granted all the territory between the 
Connecticut River and Delaware Bay, and 
demanded the Fort's surrender. The claim of 
the English was nebulous to the last deLrree. 
As Freneau neatly put it, 

"The soil they demanded, or threatened their worst. 
Insisting that Cabot had looked at it Jirst." 

P)Ut the dimsiest pretension, if vigorously 
backed, outvalues the strongest if less sturdily 
maintained ; and Director Stuyvesant found 
his people unwilling to support him in defying 
the intruder. .So down dropped the Dutch 
colors and up ran the British. 

Precisely nine years later, however, what 
had formerly been called New Amsterdam, but 
was now New York, yielded itself to a little 
Dutch fleet without striking a defensive blow. 
Captain Colve's victory was so lightly won, 
indeed, that the English commander. Captain 
Manning, was courtmartialled for his apparent 
inefficiency, cowardice or treason, and the es- 
tates of the Governor, Colonel Lovelace, who. 
when the blow fell, was absent on affairs of 



176 



New York City 



f2**?wa^??irf 



State, were contiscated by the Duke. The 
triumph of the Hollanders was short-lived ; for 
the year 1674 had not run its course when 
Major Edmund Andros assumed the governor- 
ship, and by the terms of a treaty of peace be- 
tween England 
and the States- 
General, N e \v 
Orange, as the 
place had been 
christened by 
the Dutch, again 
and finally be- 
came New York. 
New York has 
been in turn a 
Dutch village, 
an English 
town, and a n 
American city. 
In its infancy 
it was wholly Dutch ; but in its early youth 
the population was so leavened by Eng- 
lisli immigration that the transition to Eng- 
lish control was less violent than one might 
expect it to have been. English influence 
was powerful even in Stuyvesant's day ; and 




PETER STUYVESANT. 



New York City 



/ / 



wliL-n Stu\vesant was supplanted by Nicolls, 
tlu^ Dutch element was still powc;rful in the 
councils of the little town. The new ruler 
moved slowly and cautiously in an^-licizino- the 
orovernment, and almost all the changes he 
mad(' were for the better. The brief resump- 
tion of Dutch author- 
ity in 1673 was re- 
actionary and wholl\- '^^• 
detrimental to the in- 
terests of the com- 
munit)-; and, all things 
considered, the peace- 
ful cession of the 
town to England, a 
year later, was the hap- 
piest chance that could 
possibly have befallen. '^"^ °' "^^^ ^'"" "^ '^'=^- 

A more violent and radical change was 
effected in 1689, when Jacob Leisler seized the 
occasion of the fall of the Stuart dynasty to 
grasp the reins of government wOiich Andros 
had be(;n forced to drop. Vyy the aid of the 
militia and wMth the support of nearl)- all the less 
prosperous townsfolk, he administered public 
affairs till that good Dutchman William III. 
of England commissioned Governor SlouLditer 




1 78 New York City 

to hang the usurper and reign in his stead. 
Leisler's rule had been in many respects an 
enHghtened one, and years afterward his 
adherents succeeded in having his dishonored 
bones dug up and honorably reinterred. It 
was in this town, and at the instance of this 
earnest but ill-balanced and despotic champion 
of the poor, that the American Colonies took 
their first step toward concerted action, their 
objective being the overthrow of the French 
at Montreal. 

The most striking characteristic of New 
York has always been its cosmopolitanism. 
As Governor Roosevelt points out in his 
capital review of the city's history, no less than 
eighteen different languages and dialects were 
spoken in the streets so long ago as the 
middle of the seventeenth century. The 
Dutch, the English and the Huguenot refu- 
gees from France predominated, but there 
were many Walloons and Germans, and a 
large body of black slaves. The riffraff of 
the Old World was to be found here, as well 
as the nobly adventurous ; and, in fact, at all 
times since, the proportion of foreign-born 
residents has been very large. 

In the period immediately preceding the 



New York City 



179 



Revolution, the desire for independence was 
far less general in New York than in Massa- 
chusetts or Virginia. The large land owners 
and leading merchants were mainly members 
of the Church of England ; and while there 
was no state 
church, so called 
and admitted to 
be such, the An- 
glicans were first 
in wealth and 
fashion, and 
their oro^aniza- 
tion enjoyed ex- 
clusive p r i V i - 
leges. Even 
King's College 
(now Columbia 
University) was 
placed officially 
under Church control, 
eluded not only the Anglican clergy and almost 
all the laity, but even an influential section of the 
membership of the Dutch Reformed Church. 
It included such families as the I)e Peysters. 
the De Lanceys and the Philippses in the 
city and its suburbs; and the Johnsc^ns, who 




JOHN JAY. 



The court i)arty in- 



i8o 



New \'ork City 



dominated central Nfew York. There were 
Tories even on the Committee of Fifty-one 
that first authoritatively proposed the assem- 
bling of a Continental Congress. In no other 
colony was the Tory element so numerous 

and powerful ; in 
none other were 
the patriots op- 
posed b)- so ac- 
tive a spirit of 
loyalty to the 
Crown, and so 
v'ast a bulk of 
indifference o n 
the part of prop- 
erty - owners, so- 
licitous for no- 
thing but the 
security of their 
possessions. At 
first the Schuy- 
lers. the Living- 
stons, and Ham- 
ilton, Jay and r^Iorris found their support 
almost wholly among the masses, who rose 
not only against England, but also against the 
domination of the classes, which was more 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



New York City uSi 

o])i)ressive in the aristocratic city of New 
York than in the democratic town of Boston, 
or in Philadelphia. Thus, it was the so-called 
Sons of Liberty that had led in the agitation 
which made the Stamp Act a dead letter, so far 
as this colony was concerned, and a decade 
later prevented the landintr of taxed tea on 
New York wharves. And their demonstra- 
tive radicalism found little response in the 
minds of some of the ablest civil and mili- 
tary leaders contributed by this colony to 
the work of liberation and reconstruction. 
Hut th(' violence of the mob could not blind 
such men to the essential justice ot the 
American cause, and the actual beginnincr of 
the war found a lari^e majority of the best 
people of the colony definitely committed to 
a patriotic course. So when Washinij^ton and 
his army were driven hither from Brooklyn 
and hence to New Jersey, in 1776, New York 
was no longer the populous place it had been 
before their sympathizers Hed from the terrors 
of hostile military rule. 

I-'or the next seven years this remained the 
chief British stronghold in America. If the 
eastern and southern colonies could be split 
apart b)- Knglish control of the Hudson, the 



I«2 



New York City 



backbone of the colonial federation would be 
broken — as the backbone of the Confederacy 
was broken, nearly a century later, by Sher- 
man's march to the sea. So every energy was 
bent toward dislodging the Continentals from 
this dividing-line. This was the immediate 
object of Arnold's treachery, as well as of 
man)' an overt movement from south and 
north. But Washington outgeneralled the 
enemy and kept the federation intact, till the 
capture of Yorktown made New York no 
longer tenable by the foe. The city was well- 
nigh ruined by its experiences during these 
seven terrible years ; and the outlying country 
to the north— Westchester County — suffered 
no less severely, being exposed to raids from 
the opposing bodies of regulars, and to con- 
stant marauding at the hands of freebooters, 
who pretended affiliation with one side or the 
other, sometimes in good faith, but often 
merely as a pretext for lawless depredations. 
The most joyously celebrated event in the 
annals of Manhattan was the city's evacuation 
by the British at the close of the war. On 
the day that this occurred, November 25, 
1 783, General Washington arrived in town 
and dined at Fraunces's Tavern ; and hither 



1 84 New York City 

he repaired again, ten days later, on the eve 
of his departure for Annapohs, to bid fare- 
well to his officers. In this same buildinij, 
and in the same Lony Room, the first meet- 
ing; of the New York Chamber of Commerce 
had been held, in 1 768, fifteen years before 
any similar association was organized in Great 
Britain. This hostelry had, indeed, been the 
fashionable rendezxous of New Yorkers since 
I 762, when the shop at the southeast corner 
of Broad and Pearl Streets was converted to 
still more public uses by Samuel Fraunces 
(" Black Tom "), who in later )ears was to be- 
come the first President's steward. At the 
beginning it was known as the Queen's Head 
Tavern, its sign bearing a portrait of Oueen 
Charlotte. Enlarged, and otherwise altered, 
but not improved, Praunces's Tavern is still, 
as it has always been, a public-house, though 
fashion has long since deserted it. It would 
be most deplorable if the march of improve- 
ment (in whose name, as in Liberty's, so many 
offences are committed) should ever be al- 
lowed to obliterate this most aged and inter- 
esting relic of old New York. 

The war of 181 2 was by no means popular 
with the representative merchants of New 



New York City 185 

York, despite the fact that the enforcement of 
England's pretended right of search had acted 
ahiiost as a blockade of the port for some years 
before the outbreak of hostilities. It had been 
a common occurrence for merchantmen in the 
lower bay to be stopped by a shot across their 
bows, and searched for possible British sub- 
jects among their crews. But when war came 
the fighting spirit was aroused, and many a 
privateer was fitted out to prey upon the en- 
emy's merchant marine. Rich prizes were 
taken, and desperate engagements were fought 
between the crews of brigs and schooners from 
New York and British men-of-war's men who 
interfered with their privateering practices. 
A few years earlier (1807), Fulton had demon- 
strated on the Hudson the practicability of 
steam navigation ; and now he built in New 
York, under Congressional direction, a steam 
frigate, iron-clad and heavily armed. This 
formidable craft might have been depended 
upon to raise the British blockade, had it not 
been raised still more effectually by a declara- 
tion of peace. The city did not suffer in this 
second war with England as it had suffered in 
the first. Instead of waiting for )ears, as 
before, to recuperate, it entered at once upon 



1 86 New York City 

a period of unprecedented growth. The re- 
turn of peace stimulated immigration, and 
local prosperity was vastly augmented by the 
opening in 1825 of the Erie Canal. 

Until 1822, the mayor was appointed by a 
State council, presided over by the Governor ; 
thereafter, until 1834, he was chosen by the 
municipal council ; since then he has been 
elected by the people. But democratic rule 
was not always found to work satisfactorily, 
and in 1857 the control of local affairs was 
largely delegated to the legislature. This pre- 
caution proved of comparatively little value, 
however, and the Tweed ring of local ofifice- 
holders found little difficulty in running things 
as they wished and robbing the tax-payers of 
millions upon millions. The charter of the 
city recently created by the amalgamation of 
New York, Brooklyn, etc., professed to restore 
home rule, in large measure ; but so much of 
the supposed boon as it confers may be with- 
drawn at any time by State legislation, and 
bills withdrawing it piecemeal are, in fact, 
introduced at every session of the legislature. 

When secession threatened, in 1861, the 
Democratic city of New York was the least 
friendly of Northern communities in its attitude 



New York City 187 

toward the federal government. The common 
council, indeed, rapturously applauded the 
mayor's formal suggestion that the city itself 
secede. But the first overt act of hostility at 
the South showed that, beneath this surface 
sympathy with the secessionists, the great 
mass of earnest citizens were ardent in ad- 
herence to the Union. Life and treasure 
were poured out more than abundantly. The 
Seventh Regiment — the " crack " militia or- 
ganization of the city, if not of the nation — 
hurried off to Washington to guard the capital 
from surprise ; and tens of thousands of volun- 
teers followed to the front. No one city con- 
tributed more to the national cause. In fact 
the city's contributions were too liberal for her 
own good ; for the consequent dearth of able- 
bodied honest men at home left the community 
a prey to the enemies of society, and regiment 
after regiment had to be called back to restore 
order. The worst outbreaks were the so- 
called draft riots, caused by the enforced enlist- 
ment of troops ; in these uprisings, negroes 
were the special object of the mob's hostility. 
The first few huts in New Amsterdam were 
huddled together beneath the sheltering walls 
of the F'ort. There was but one general di- 



iHH New York City 

rection in wliich tlu- haiiihl could extend ; yet it 
was Ioiil;' l)efore the nortlivvard movement lilled 
with shoj)s and liouses the space between the 
hOrt and ih< line ol Wall Street, and lor sev- 
eral years thereafter the ureat Wall marked ihe 
boundary of the village. Idle Revolution found 
[\]f border pushed forward to the rd^r dl iIh 
Common, where (he posl-odue stands to-day. 
The chief outlet iruui this point lay eastward, 
throuL^h what is now i*ark Row to the Bowery, 
and thence through the outlyini; farms to 
Westchester County, Connecticut and I fusion. 

On the west side there was another outlet, 
skirting the liudson River and extending- to 
the little village of Creenwich ; and the (oc- 
casional outbreak ol \e||uw fever in New York 
made this .1 (H)|iid>ir resort. Ihe uillux ol 
twenty thousaiul reluoees tlurin*; one ol these 
scares, early in the [Jt'esent century, completely 
changed the character ul this villaj^e, .md al- 
iliMii^h most ol the newcomers retiuned to the 
lower fuA of the islauil, ( "/reenwich had practi- 
cally l)ecome, by 1^:50, an integral part of the 
city. The ncjrthward spread via Greenwich 
Street, the Bowery and Broadway contuimd, 
till Yorkville and ll.nleuiou lli<<cist and Maii- 
hattanville and lili •unuus.MLde uii ihi west were 



New York City 189 

absorbed by the i^rowing- city. In 1874 the 
Harlem was crossed, and New York ceased to 
be an island ; in 1895 still further accessions 
were made in Westchester County. But the 
crowning event in the expansion of the city 
was the legislation b)- which, on January 1, 
1898, Brookl)n and tlie outlying towns and 
villages on Long Island, and all of Staten 
Island, were brought within the limits of New 
\'ork — an act that raised the population at a 
stroke from less than 1,900,000 to near 3,400,- 
000, and incidentally brought almost half the 
people of the State under the immediate rule 
of Tammany Hall. 

A word should be said as to the Society, 
named in honor of lamanend, an Indian chief 
who signed one of the treaties by which Wil- 
liam Penn acquired the site of the city of Phil- 
adelphia. One of many societies of the same 
name, organized tor social and i)nlitical pur- 
poses toward the close of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, it reriected, to a certain extent, a spirit 
which had prevailed among the younger ofii- 
cers of the Revolution who had felt the force 
of Rousseau's idealization of primitive man. 
Its first meeting was held on " St. Tamman)'s 
day "( May 12), 1789. In membership it was 



I90 New York City 

allied with the Sons of Liberty and the Sons 
of 1776, and it has always professed "intense 
Americanism," so far as that phrase is synony- 
mous with Anglophobia. At first its ranks 
were recruited from amongr the small mer- 
chants, retailers and mechanics of the city ; 
and by coming into close touch with the mass 
of immigrants that form so large a proportion 
of the population, giving the new comers em- 
ployment in some cases, in others charitable 
aid, instructing the alien voter as to his politi- 
cal rights and privileges, and directing him in 
their exercise, it has built up an enormous vot- 
ing machine, insufficient to defeat a united 
opposition, but almost invariably so fortunate in 
local contests as to find its opponents divided. 
While nominally Democratic in national 
affairs, Tammany has never scrupled to op- 
pose the Democratic party in the pursuit of 
its own immediate end — the control of local 
offices and revenues. This powerful machine 
has now for several years been dominated by 
an illiterate immigrant. 

Comparatively recent as were the beginnings 
of the city, hardly a trace of the original village 
remains. Not a sintrle buildinor has come 
down to us from the Dutch period. It was to 







^ |-iil i 








192 New York City 

have been expected that somethiiii^ would 
survive the flight of less than three centuries. 
A happy chance might easily have preserved 
the stone " temple " erected within the walls of 
the Fort in 1652, or the slightly older ware- 
house, or some one of the many curious little 
stone or brick houses in which the burly 
burghers of the seventeenth century smoked 
their long pipes by the chimney-side, while 
their wives plied the spinning-wheel, their 
daughters spread the board, and their children, 
in padded breeches, played about the sanded 
floor. 

The Stadt Huys, originally built as an inn, 
to relieve Director Kieft of the burden of 
overmuch entertaining, dated back to the 
same year as the Dutch Reformed Church in 
the fortified enclosure. The organization of 
the old church is still maintained, and the 
functions of the city government have been 
performed in successive buildings to the pre- 
sent day ; but the picturesque old government 
house — fifty feet square, three stories high in 
the walls and two in the attic, with windows in 
the gable of its crow-stepped roof, — that should 
have been cherished as a most interesting 
relic of the city's earliest period, lasted but a 



New York City 193 

little way Into the present century, havlno- 
then been used for over a hundred years for 
commercial purposes. 

Chief among the few other survivals from 
the early days, and antedating all of them. Is 
Bowling Green. This oldest bit of park land 
in the city dates from the Dutch occupation. 
It lay Immediately In front of the Fort, and no 




STAINED-QLASS WINDOW IN BOWLING GREEN OFFICES." 

SHOWING GREEN ABOUT 1760. 

building has ever stood upon Its diminutive, 
oblong site. The relatively old row of build- 
ings (Steamship Row) which overlooks It 
from the south will ere long be replaced by a 
Custom House worthy of the second port of 
entry In the world. This will occup)- the site 
of the old government house, which once 
served the purpose for which the new building 
is designed. In 1771, It was found advisable 



194 New York City 

to enclose the Green with an iron fence. Be- 
reft of the crowns that surmounted the posts, 
the fence still surrounds it, though the eques- 
trian statue of Georoe III., which it was put up 
to protect, vanished in i 776. In the excitement 
that followed the reading of the Declaration 
of Independence, in that year, the crowd 
marched down Broadway from the Common, 
and tumbled the King from his pedestal. The 
leaden carcass was shipped to Connecticut, 
where the wife and daughter of Governor 
Wolcott cannily converted it into rebel bullets. 
An indignity similar in degree though differ- 
ent in kind was offered to America's eloquent 
Parliamentary advocate, William Pitt, whose 
marble effigy at Wall and William Streets 
was decapitated during the Revolution b\' the 
Tories, and left standing for \ears as a mere 
" disturber of traffic." 

The house at No. i Broadway, looking east- 
ward over the lower end of Bowling Green, 
built in I 760 by Colonel Kennedy, afterward 
Earl of Cassilis, and occupied in turn by the 
American leaders, including Washington, and 
by the English, including Cornwallis, Howe 
and Sir Henry Clinton, was the scene of Major 
Andre's last interview with the P)ritish com- 



New York City 



^95 



mander befoR' his fatal journey to West Point. 
And in another house in Broadway overlooking 
the Green, Benedict Arnold had his ([uarter"^ 
after his flight and the exposure of his infamous 
plot. Mention of the gallant )oung British 
officer, Andrei naturally suogests the name and 




GOVERNMENT HOUSE. 

fate of Nathan Hale, whose heroism is com- 
memorated by a noble statue by MacMonnies, 
which faces Broadwa\- from the lower corner 
of City Hall Park, not far from the spot where 
the American sp\- was hanged from an apple- 
tree. The Beekman " Mansion." o\ erlooking 
the East River near what is now lM'ft\-first 



New York City 197 

Street, the scene of Hale's trial and condemna- 
tion, survived till 1874; the Kennedy House, 
identified with Andre's memory, lasted eight 
years longer. 

A picturesque feature of the old town was 
the canal that ran from the city wall to the bay, 
becoming first an artery of trade, and then a 
centre of fashionable life, as Broad Street, 
whick took its place, has since been a centre 
of commercial activity. 1 1 was directly opposite 
Broad Street, in Wall, that the foundations of 
the new City Hall were laid in 1699, the sale 
of the Stadt Huys helping to defray the 
cost of the more pretentious structure. The 
arms of the English Governor, Lord Bellomont, 
were blazoned on its walls ; but two years 
later the marshal was called upon to remove 
and destroy them. When New York became 
the seat of the national government, the ninety- 
year-old City Hall, partly reconstructed and 
lavishly decorated, became the meeting-place 
of Congress. The most memorable day in its 
history was the 30th of April. 1789, when, 
attended by Chancellor Livingston and the 
committees of St-nators and Representatives, 
standing upon its balcony in the presence of a 
<rreat concourse;, not mert^ly of New Yorkers, 



icjS New York City 

))ut of Americans from all the colonies, gathered 
together from far and near, (jeorc^e Washino- 
ton took tlu; oatli of office as first President of 
the United States. Where the Capitol then 
stood now stands the Suh-l>easury, with 
Ward's bronze Washington lookinjj^ gravely 
down from its steps upon the feverish turmoil 
of Wall Street. 

I'Ik; oldest existing;- municipal buildint; in 
New York is th(t Hall of Records, in City 
Hall Park, whose; contents are erelong to be 
housed in a spacious, fire-proof edifice. It 
dates from the middh' of the eig^hteenth cen- 
tur)'. its site formed a part of the Common, 
and it stood appropriately convenient to the 
gallows, for it was originall) a jail— the first 
building on the island ever designed exclusively 
for the detention of law-breakers. In popular 
])arlance, as in practical use, it soon became 
the Debtors' Prison. When the British occu- 
pied the town tluring the Revolution, it was 
turned to account as their principal military 
prison, being known as Tht; Provost, in re- 
ference to the title ol the brutal Cunningham, 
who was charged with the custody of American 
prisoners of war — amongst others, " that d — d 
rebel, luhan Allen." The building was a debt- 




ST. PAUL'S CHURCH. 



200 



New York City 



ors' jail again from 1787 to 1830; on the 
completion of alterations projected at the 
latter date, it became, in 1835, the Register's 




CITY HALL. 



office, and as such will probably see the close 
of the nineteenth century. 

Vastly more attractive to the eye than this 
treasury of real-estate records, and not wholly 
lacking in historic interest, is the adjacent 
City Hall. This really handsome building, 
in the style of the Italian Renaissance, was 



New York City 201 

begun in 1803, and completed nine years later. 
The likelihood of the city's extending beyond 
it seemed too slight to warrant lavishing upon 
its back the white marble which adds so much 
to the dignity and grace of its fa9ade ; the rear 
wall was accordingly constructed of a cheaper 
stone. In the " Governor's room " on the 
second tloor, used for official receptions, are 
the desk on which Washington wrote his first 
message to Congress, the chair in which he 
was inauirurated as President, and the chairs 
used by the first federal Congress. 

In the same neighborhood, just beyond the 
lower extremity of the old Common, now 
City Hall Park, stands St. Paul's Chapel, 
Trinity parish — an edifice much older than 
the parish church, which for the i)ast half- 
century, like its successive parent buildings, 
has stood farther down Broadway, opposing its 
bulk to the westward progress of Wall Street. 
P'enced off 1)\- iron palings, and bordered on 
each side b)- a strip of graveyard, the chapel 
turns a picturesque and perhaps scornful back 
upon the "topless towers" of Broadway — 
little dreamt of when its foundations were 
laid in 1766, or three-and-twent\- years later, 
when President Washington attnulcd service 



202 New York City 

there on the day of his first inauguration. 
These heaven-aspiring structures were only 
beginning to turn the street into a can)()n 
when the first President's successor in office sat 
in the same pew on the same day a century 
later ( April 30, 1889). 

Private houses of historic interest abounded 
not many years ago, notable among them the 
country-seat called Richmond Hill, near the 
lone since absorbed villa^^e of Greenwich — a 
stately dwelling, identified with many familiar 
names, fohn Adams lived there during a part 
of his first term as Vice-President, and Aaron 
Burr started thence on that fateful July morn- 
ing in 1804 that saw the death of Hamilton at 
his hand, and the end of his own political 
career. Of equal note was the house on Mur- 
ray Hill, wdiere Mrs. Murray detained the 
British commander at lunch while the Ameri- 
can troops, under Putnam, made their escape 
from the island in 1776. 

The so-called fumel Mansion, built for 
Washington's whilom flame, Miss Mary Phi- 
lippse, by her successful suitor, Col. Roger 
Morris, and afterwards occupied by Washing- 
ton as his headquarters, became in turn the 
property of the nation ( Morris having been a 



204 New York City 

royalist), of John Jacob Astor, and of Stephen 
Jumel, whose erratic widow married Aaron 
Burr, but soon tired of him, turned him out of 
doors and dropped his name. From its coign 
of vantage on Harlem Heights at 169th Street, 
this dignified colonial dwellincr still looks clown 
upon the Harlem River and across to Long 
Island Sound. And at the foot of East 6ist 
Street is yet to be seen — vine-covered, and 
embowered in trees and shrubs — the substan- 
tial stone residence of Col. William Smith, 
who married the daughter of President Adams, 
and ruined himself by speculating in east-side 
real estate. But the scarcity of such relics, 
and their glaring incongruity with their sur- 
roundings, emphasize the divergence between 
the old New York and that which is termed 
the Greater. 

In the hall of Cooper Institute, Abraham 
Lincoln made that great speech which first 
fully revealed him to the people of the Eastern 
States ; and hither he was brought, to lie in 
state in the City Hall, when a martyr's death 
had disclosed his greatness still more clearly 
to all his countrymen. 

Here have lived, for longer or shorter 
periods, sundry Presidents of the United 



New York City 205 

States, from Washington to Cleveland ; the 
city has been the permanent or occasional home 
of statesmen such as Jay and Livingston, 
Alexander Hamilton and Gouverneur Morris ; 
of political agitators such as Aaron Burr and 
" Commonsense " Paine, and political leaders 
like DeWitt Clinton and Samuel J. Tilden ; of 
authors such as Washington Irving, whose 
burlesque local history marked him out as the 
father of American light literature, Feni- 
more Cooper, the most popular of American 
romance-writers, and Edgar Allan Poe and 
Walt Whitman, most individual of American 
poets. Here, for longer or shorter periods, 
have lived and labored Curtis, and Bayard 
Taylor, and Stoddard, and Stedman, and Aid- 
rich, and Howells, and that greatest of poets 
among journalists and journalists among poets, 
William Cullen Bryant, editor of The Evening 
Post and one of the founders of the Century 
Club ; and Horace Greeley, founder of The 
Tribune, and most famous of American editors 
since Benjamin Franklin. As a resident of 
Brooklyn, and editor of a metropolitan religious 
weekly, the best-known preacher of the cen- 
tury, Henry Ward Beecher, was virtually a 
citizen of New York. In the- annals of inven- 



2o6 New York City 

tion, the names of four Nt:w Yorkers stand 
out conspicuously — Fulton and Ericsson and 
Edison and Morse. And of all the free- 
booters that ever terrorized the sea, none has 
left a more awful and enduriuL;' fame than a 
once respectable resident of Liberty Street, 
renowned in song and story for two centuries 
as Captain Kidd. 

The hospitality of New York and her 
people is proverbial. Every distinguished 
visitor to America for more than a century 
past lias ])een entertained here, officially or in- 
formally. Among the city's guests have been 
William IV. ot England, while yet a sailor 
prince ; Lafayette, Louis Kossuth, the Prince 
of Wales, the Grand Duke Alexis, the Emperor 
of Brazil, the Princess Eulalia, the Duke of 
Veragua, Li Hung Chang and the Marquis 
I to. Almost all the greatest preachers, orators, 
players singers, and instrumental performers 
of the nineteenth centur\- have added to their 
fame or wealth by facing New York audi- 
ences ; and among the great writers who have 
visited us have been Dickens, Thackeray, and 
Kipling. 

While New York is easily first among the 
cities of the New World in commercial import- 



New York City 2o;r 

ance, it is not on material bases only that her 
sLipremacN ix^sts. No communit)- throuL^hout 
the world responds more orenerousK' to every 
appeal for s\-mpathy or help, whether the call 
be local, national or foreiorn. Her interest is 
keen in educational work of ever\- kind. Co- 
lumbia University — one of the oldest of local 
institutions, and more than local in its aims 
and fame and influence — has of late, throuL^di 
the liberality of her sons and other citizens, 
been housed in a manner commensurate,' with 
her Rxiuirements and aspirations ; and so also 
has the less venerable but justh' honored New 
York University. And the past few years 
have seen Barnard Collei^c for women and the 
Teachers College (both allied with Columbia) 
emero;(^ from the chrysalis state into forms of 
beauty and power. The public-school system, 
moreover. — thanks to a recent brief respite 
from Tamman\- control, — is in better condi- 
tion to-da\- than at an\- previous period of 
Tammany administration. 

Of American literar\- activity, despite Bos- 
ton's ancient and deserved j^resti^e, it cannot 
be denied that New York is to-day the centre, 
as it is the centre of the publishing- trade, in 
books and periodicals, j^oston. with her s|)lcn- 



2o8 New York City 

did Public Library, has set an example which 
the metropolis has been slow to follow ; but 
the consolidation of the Astor, Lenox and 
Tilden collections, and their prospective hous- 
ing in a magnificent and admirably situated 
building, has gone far to remove the reproach 
incurred during long years of public indiffer- 
ence to popular needs. The venerable Society 
Library, the modern and many-branched Free 
Circulating Library and kindred institutions 
have helped to create and in part to meet 
the demand which the Public Library in its 
new home may reasonably be expected to 
satisfy. Equally important in their way are 
those half-social, half-educational essays to- 
ward the solution of some of the problems of 
the slums — the University Settlement of men 
and the College Settlement of women. As a 
further indication that New York is not wholly 
given over to the worship of Mammon, it may 
be mentioned that the Greek Club, with its 
fortnightly meetings for the reading and dis- 
cussion of the classics, has been for more than 
three decades the only circle of its kind in 
existence. 

In art, the invaluable treasures of the Met- 
ropolitan Museum foster the love of what is 




uj»iwiimww»F 



WASHINGTON ARCH. 



20f) 



2 10 New York City 

enduringly beautiful in sculpture, painting, 
architecture, etc. ; while the schools of this mu- 
seum and of the National x'\cademy of Design 
and the Society of American Artists, to say 
nothinor of the more utilitarian classes of 
Cooper Institute and the School of Artist 
Artisans, afford instruction in art of such a sort 
as to render foreign study no longer indispens- 
able, albeit no less attractive than of old. 

Of music, vocal and instrumental, such feasts 
are spread before the local amateur as can be 
matched for quality and abundance in no 
other city at home or abroad, and while this 
is not true of the drama also, as the Comedie 
Fran9aise has never come hither in a body, it 
is yet a fact that nearly all that is best is seen, 
sooner or later, on the New York stage. 

Hy what rapid strides the city is moving for- 
ward in some directions, while halting lamenta- 
bly in others, needs not to be pointed out. 
There is expert testimony to the effect that in 
public morality it has at least held its own during 
the past half-century ; we trust it may some da}' 
work out its salvation in things political, and 
cease to be the mild milch cow of thirsty dem- 
agogues. It can never vie in picturesqueness 
and historic interest witli its European peers 



New York City 21 1 

in population and importance, nor atone by its 
singularly fortunate situation for its poverty in 
little parks and its richness in rough-paved, 
right-angled and treeless streets and avenues ; 
yet it may some day rival even Paris in the 
absolute beauty of its public and private build- 
ings and historic monuments. A brave begin- 
ning has been made, in the Washington Arch, 
the Madison Square Garden, the Columbia and 
the New York University buildings, the Wash- 
ington, Hale and Farragut statues and certain 
churches, club-houses and private dwellings. 
And in the Cathedral of St. John, the Public 
Library, the Academy of Design and the 
Botanical and Zoological gardens, a further 
stride will be made erelong in the only direc- 
tions in which aesthetic leadership seems 
possible. 



BROOKLYN 
THE TOWN ON FREEDOM'S BATTLE-FIELD 

By HARRINGTON PUTNAM 

THE earliest Dutch settlements within the 
present borou^;h limits are not so old as 
the first hamlets on Manhattan. More than a 
score of years after the houses and forts of New 
Amsterdam looked out across the East River, 
the forest-crested heights of the west end of 
Long Lsland remained in undisturbed Indian 
occupation. 

The Dutch settlers were deterred, rather than 
attracted, by this magnificent stretch of green 
woodlands extending along the high shore. 
The Holland people were not accustomed to 
timber clearin"; and therefore souHit access to 
the island by the smoother meadow-lands of 
Gowanus, and afterwards to the nortli where the 
slooping grasslands about the Waalboght in- 
vited the settler to essay gardening without too 

213 



214 Brooklyn 

much preparation with the axe. The early 
Lon^ Island farmers advanced on the territory 
of Brooklyn by flank attacks, seeking to turn 
the wings of the extended forest, rather than 
boldly t'o engage in the struggle with the 
densely wooded heights in front. These pio- 
neers were thrifty, energetic Hollanders and 
Huguenots whose farms soon required regular 
communication with Manhattan. In 1642 a 
public ferry was established between the pres- 
ent foot of Fulton Street and a landing in 
Peck's Slip. The houses clustered about this 
Long Island landing constituted a little settle- 
ment called The Ferry. 

As the Indians were dispossessed from their 

maize-fields, the colonists found sites for a 

small village a mile or so inland. The modern 

visitor who comes up Fulton Street should 

stop about the corner of Hoyt and Smith 

Streets to locate this settlement and picture a 

primitive hamlet of small one-story frame 

cottages, sometimes surrounded by palisades 

for protection against attacks. The open 

lands were of small extent, with forest to the 

east and west, and streams running south into 

a wide morass, where is now Gowanus Canal. 

Undoubtedly theundrained land of this settle- 



2i6 Brooklyn 

nicnt, receiving copious moisture from the 
surrounding forests, contained many a marsh 
and fen hke the homelands of Holland. So 
the settlers called it the brookland, or Breucke- 
len, after an ancient village of that name on 
the river Vecht in the Province of Utrecht. 
The records of old Breuckelen are traced by 
local antiquarians of Utrecht to the time of Ta- 
citus. In its variant forms, Bracola, Broccke, 
Brocckede, Broicklede and Brocklandia, it des- 
cribes a moist meadow-land. Or, as a Dutch 
writer declares, the town on the Vecht was 
called Breuckelen from the marshes (a pahidi- 
biis). Its beautiful gardens and quaint castles, 
as the emiofrants had beheld them when start- 
ing out from home, perhaps remained in the 
imagination of the Long Island settlers as an 
ideal of what their western home should some 
day become. 

Just as Utrecht and Amersfoort are near-by 
towns to Breuckelen in the Lowlands, so New 
Utrecht towards the south — near the present 
Fort Hamilton — and Amersfoort ( Flatlands) 
attested the determination of these Nether- 
landers to preserve the associations of their 
origin between the Rhine and the Zu}der Zee. 

The life of these hard-workiuL'' settlers was 



2i8 Brooklyn 

not all hardship. Their low houses with pro- 
jecting roofs were strong and comfortable ; the 
wide spacious fireplaces gave warmth to a 
generous hospitality that laid on the board 
wild turkeys and Gowanus oysters and other 
good eatables, followed after the repast by the 
long clay pipes, which, when over, left the 
weary toiler to be ushered to his night's rest in 
a partitioned-off bunk or betste. But these 
material comforts were not all the results real- 
ized by the efforts of the first pioneers. These 
Dutch settlers were zealous for religion, liberty, 
and good schools ; and from the first were not 
deficient in a commendable zeal for the public 
welfare. 

Under the form of Colonial government the 
burghers were invited to submit all difficulties 
to the Governor and council, who were fond of 
the exercise of a strong, minute, and careful 
paternalism. The country folk were not ex- 
pected to intrude on the authorities their 
own ideas of Hberty, but merely to obey loyally 
what good, old, obstinate, arbitrary Governor 
Stuyvesant should command. Yet even when 
he had spoken with the official concurrence 
of his council, the eager spirits in Breuckelen 
would often cavil, and boldly presume to come 



Brooklyn 219 

over to Manhattan to stir up criticism and 
pul^lic remonstrance. So they were honored 
^vith a special order. The folk of Breuckelen, 
Amersfoort and Midwout (Flatbush) m 1653 
were directed to forbid their residents from at- 
tending political meetings in New Amster- 
dam. , 
At this time the civic virtues were enforced 
in Breuckelen, and the good of the village put 
before the preference of a private citizen to 
retire from public office. The Governor would 
not allow anyone to decline to serve in an offi- 
cial capacity. The schepen-elect of Breucke en 
proposed not to continue in office for another 
term. He even said he would sooner go back 
to Holland than remain burdened l)y the duties 
of schepen. The Governor quickly took him 
-It his word. The Sheriff was formally required 
to notify him of this order of the Governor 
which stated with remarkable clearness the 
obligation of good townsmen to the public and 
the penalty for its neglect : 

" If you will not accept to serve as schepen for the wel- 
fare of the Village of Breuckelen, with others vour el- 
low residents, then vou must prepare yourself to sa>l ,n 
the ship King Solomon for Holland, agreeably to )Our 
utterance." 



2 20 Brooklyn 

No further refusals to hold office appear to 
have embarrassed the council. 

The colonists of Breuckelen were specially 
solicitous for a meetinof-house and domine. 
They insisted that they should have good 
measure in discourses and that if the services 
should be abbreviated by the preacher, then 
on their side no tithes should be forthcomincr. 
The first meeting-house was begun in 1654 at 
Midwout (Flatbush). Soon they worshipped 
in the partly roofed building. After much diffi- 
culty and repeated applications to the Council 
it had been arranged that the Rev. Mr. Pol- 
hemus should have his mornino- discourse at 
Flatbush, with his evening service alternately 
at Midwout and in Breuckelen. 

Governor Stuyvesant may have fancied that 
he had composed the difficulty. Next winter, 
however, the Governor was presented with a 
further remonstrance against the cutting-short 
of these alternating evening devotions. They 
thus complained of this brief and scanty ser- 
vice : 

" Every fortnight on Sundays he comes here, only in 
the afternoon for aciuarter of an hour, when he only gives 
us a prayer in lieu of sermon, by which we can receive 
very little instruction ; while often, while one supposes 



Brooklyn 221 

the prayer or sermon (whichever name miglit be pre- 
ferred for it) is beginning, then it is actually at an end, by 
which he contributes very little to the edification of his 
congregation." 

To modern cars, this seems a strange griev- 
ance for legislation. 

Governor Stuyvesant, however, admonished 
the Breuckelen folk to pay their full tithes. 
Doubtless he privately reminded Mr, Polhemus 
of his duties and obligations to give his people 
full service. 

In three years they obtained a domine of 
their own. The Rev. Henricus Selyns, a 
learned and devout young clergyman of a 
prominent Amsterdam family came to Breuck- 
elen in 1660. At first his parishioners wor- 
shipped in a barn, but a meeting-house was 
soon erected. His sj)iritual labors and influ- 
ence were successful, and the four years of 
Mr. Selyns's ministrations were affectionately 
remembered. Compelled to return to Holland 
by the last illness of his father, he came to 
America and settled in New York eighteen 
years later. His warm admiration for Cotton 
Mather is attested by a graceful Latin poem 
appended to the later editions of the Maonal/a. 

Breuckelen was equally fortunate in a school- 



222 Brooklyn 

master — Carel de Beauvois — a cultured French 
Protestant from Leyden, who was appointed 
in Breuckelen in j66i. Besides his duties, in 
the church, of precentor and Scripture reader, 
it was stipulated that : 

" He shall properly, diligently, and industriously at- 
tend to the school, instill in the minds of the young the 
fear of the Lord, and set them a good example ; to open 
the school with prayer and close with a Psalm, also to 
exercise the scliolars in the questions in the ^roat rcgulen 
of the Rev. pious and learned father Uo. Johannes Meg- 
apolensis. Minister of the gospel in N. Amsterdam." 

Here was a hamlet of but thirty-one families 
who were not satisfied until they could listen 
to the ablest preaching- of the day, and were 
also favored with superior educational facili- 
ties. 

Meanwhile the Dutch order was changing. 
The neighboring village of Gravesend was be- 
ing settled by the English. From Connecticut 
came Quakers, who sowed the seeds of non- 
conformity and inculcated a new and strange 
doctrine, that taxes should not be levied to 
maintain tlie clergy, a principle especially at- 
tractive to those whose tithes were paid with a 
grudging hand. 

At the end of the Dutch reoime there were 



2 24 Brooklyn 

four or five little scattered hamlets within the 
present borough. The Wallabout had the 
larger French and Huguenot population. 
Eastward the English settlers were coming 
into farming competition with their Dutch 
neighbors. 

There was no great alarm or disappointment 
manifested on Long Island when on a morning 
in August, 1664, a British fleet was found to 
have assembled in the Narrows. Colonial 
militia under the British flag from New Eng- 
land came through the Sound and encamped 
on the Breuckelen shore. On September 8, 
1664, New Amsterdam yielded, and Governor 
Nicolls raised the flag of Great Britain on the 
fort. Then New Amsterdam became New 
York ; Long Island and Staten Island, and 
probably part of Westchester County, were 
made an English " shire," and Breuckelen, 
after some changes of spelling, was known as 
" Brooklyn in the West Riding of Yorkshire." 

This settlement of Dutch and Huguenots, 
maintained under the Colonial government of 
New Amsterdam, in the score of years before 
the British conquest had acquired a distinctive 
character. Contrary to a prevalent opinion, 
these first Dutch settlements, in a sound and 



Brooklyn 



--D 



vig-orous sense, were essentially democratic. In 
the absence of class privileges — the spirit to 
refer all questions to the supreme consideration 
of the general welfare ; to subordinate indi- 
vidual claims to the ris^hts and advanta^re of the 
public — Breuckelen and Miessingen ( F"lushingj 
compared favorably in civic life with contem- 
porary villages in New England. As Holland 
had been dyked against the sea by close, un- 
remitting, and intimate co-operation — a spirit 
further developed in the protracted struggle for 
independence — so the smaller Dutch colonics 
in New York, while they kept their agricultural 
character, retained a collective rather than an 
individual ideal, which tended to exclude none 
from equal social opportunities. They never 
had to struggle with the incubus of a modified 
feudalism, which, though inevitably breaking 
up, was leaving its impress of regard for rank 
and class privilege in the American colonies 
of British origin. 

Colonial life under British rule was marked 
by more rigici laws as the communities grew. 
The careful protection of common-lands was 
strictly attended to, especialh' the town for- 
ests of Brooklyn against the encroachment of 
those who would surreptitiously cut away the 



2 26 Brooklyn 

timber. Trustees oi the common woodlands 
were appointed; but in the year 1702 these 
lands were equitabh' divided and all allotted to 
each householder in Brookhn to insure their 
better protection. 

Gradually the English language was spoken 
in the churches and upon ceremonious oc- 
casions. A waggish tale of Domine Schoon- 
maker of Flatbush relates his difficulties in a 
wedding service. Fluent and eloquent in his 
mother tongue, he essayed the ceremon\' in 
English, with the manner, gestures, and all the 
courteous dignit\' of the old school. His 
English failed him at the very close of tiie 
service. Ccjnscious of the literalness of his 
extemporized translation of the formula, he 
finished with a bow, adding with solemnit)- and 
modulated emphasis, " 1 pronounce you two to 
be one bccf^ 

English customs graduall\- came in vogue. 
More aristocratic usages superseded the de- 
mocracy of the Dutch settlers. Slavery ex- 
isted in Brooklyn as in New \'ork. Brick and 
stone buildings arose along b\dton Street. 
Twice, in i 745 and i 752, the Colonial legislature 
of the Province met in Brookhn, on account of 
the prevalence of smallpox in New York. 



Brooklyn 227 

The rural character of the town is well 
illustrated b)- an event in 1759. ^^ larq-e bear 
then passed alouL;- the farms in South Ikooklyn. 
ant! being- pursued took to tlie water near Red 
Hook, where he was shot from a boat. 

The ethics of [ 774 approved the aid of lotter- 
ies to build an orthodox church in BrookKn, 
wliich the pu])hc were assured should be of no 
doubtful laxity, but a church conformable to 
the discipline of the Cluirch of England, and un- 
der the patronage of Trinity Church, New \'ork. 

In the matter of amusements in 1774, New 
Yorkers came to BrookUn for man\- of their 
sports. Here horse-races were run. In that 
\'ear an ambitious innkeeper on " 1 Ower 
Hill " — a site along the present Columl)ia 
Heights between Middagh and Cranberry 
Streets — announced that there woukl be a 
b/ii/ b(u'/cd X.\\vA-i'^ every Thursday' afternoon. 

At the outbreak of the Revolution, Brooklyn 
numbered between three and four thousand 
persons grouped in tour neighborhoods. There 
were then three ferries to New \'ork. At the 
old (T^ulton) ferry was a famous ta\'ern wliich 
figured often in the times ol l^)ritish occupa- 
tion. The two principal \illages were then 
caiieel Ih'ookK n-church and Brookhn-lerrw 



2 28 Brooklyn 

At the first movements of the Patriot party 
in New England the people of Kings County 
were little stirred. Suffolk County, at the 
eastern end of Long Island, more readily re- 
sponded to the first news from Massachusetts. 
After the battle of Lexington, Brooklynites 
assembled and passed resolutions and elected 
delegates to the Provincial Congress. 

The modern visitor to the Borough of 
Brooklyn has difficulty to realize that what is 
now densely built up, and covered by grading 
and asphalt, marks the battle-ground of one 
of the greatest engagements of the Revolu- 
tion. The houses of Charlestown cover the 
battle-eround of Bunker Hill, but that was a 
struggle over a single redoubt, while Brooklyn 
is built upon a Hne of battle nearly three 
miles in length. In the Civil War, Nor- 
thern people recall the great disaster of the 
first battle of Bull Run, fought with modern 
armies and improved weapons. Yet in that 
all-day conflict, with the disastrous rout and 
pursuit, the Union loss in killed, wounded and 
prisoners probably was not as great numeri- 
cally as the loss suffered by the American 
forces in the half-day of fierce fighting in 
Brooklyn. The Federal forces at Bull Run 



Brooklyn 229 

suffered in killed, wounded, and missinj^ 2S96, 
while the patriot losses in this, the first pitched 
battle of the Revolution, were estimated at 
3300 by the British, of whom 1097 were prison- 
ers (three being generals) ; and late American 
historians are inclined to accept this estimate 
as approximately correct. 

In the summer of 1776, a formidable fleet 
assembled in the lower Bay of New \'ork. 
These vessels bore from Nova Scotia the armies 
that had evacuated Boston, and another fleet 
of nine war vessels and thirty-five transports 
brought in the forces under Clinton that had 
been repulsed in the attack on Fort Moultrie 
at Charleston. At last, on the 12th of August 
arrived the Hessian forces in eighty-two trans- 
port-ships guarded by six war vessels. On 
board were 7800 Hessians and 1000 English 
guards. 

The observer at the Narrows must have 
daily beheld a naval pageant such as can no 
more be seen in modern warfare. From the 
first distant glimjjse of the line of sails stand- 
ing in for Sandy Hook, until they finally 
manoeuvred to their crowded anchorage by 
Staten Island, the effect was most pictur- 
esque. It was not a fleet of dark, sullen sea- 



230 Brooklyn 

clogs, with only an inconspicuous hull built to 
carry a destructive armament. The coloring 
of these vessels against the green background 
of Staten Island in the olden days of oak and 
hemp would have delighted a painter. The 
upper works outside were sometimes dark blue 
or canary yellow, surmounted by waving lines 
of trilt. Below were black streaks runnino; fore 
and aft near the water-line ; as the ships slowly 
lifted in a seaway, they disclosed a white under- 
surface that must have made an admirable tar- 
get for the opposing gunner. The grand air 
of the frigates was further enhanced by elabo- 
rate ornamentation with emblematic devices 
about the carved figure-head, and heavy gilded 
scrollwork above the stern-lights, and high 
stern-gallery. From the blufTs along the Nar- 
rows, the view down upon the decks would 
show that all inboard surfaces, even the gun- 
carriages and the inner side of port-holes, were 
painted blood-red — so as not to have the car- 
nage of battle too much en Evidence. 

At one time over four hundred transports, 
guarded by thirty-seven men-of-war, had gath- 
ered. Lord How^e on the land, and his brother, 
Admiral Howe, on the sea were in joint com- 
mand. 







m^im-^^^r-:i 



SECTION OF MAP OF BROOKLYN, 1776. 



231 



232 Brooklyn 

The patriot forces had carefully entrenched 
a line of defensive works, laid out by General 
Nathaniel Greene. The good judgment with 
which these forts were placed was attested by 
the deliberate adoption of almost the same line 
of redoubts and forts in the subsequent de- 
fences of Brooklyn by the engineers in the cam- 
paign of 1 8 14, when Brooklyn was again pre- 
pared to resist British attack. 

The fortifications of Brooklyn in 1776 ex- 
tended in an irregular line from Fort Defiance 
at Red Hook opposite Governor's Island 
across to Fort Box on Bergen's Hill near the 
corner of Court Street and First Place. At 
the junction of Clinton and Atlantic Streets, or 
a little easterly, was a steep conical hill called 
the Ponkiesburgh, and on top, surmounting a 
line of spiral trenches, a redoubt, called Cork- 
screw Fort, Between Atlantic, Pacific, Nevins, 
and Bond Streets was a redoubt mounting 
five guns called Fort Greene. Thence the line 
ran zigzag across the present Fulton Street, to 
the west of the junction of Flatbush and Ful- 
ton Avenues, along the hill slope to Fort Put- 
nam, on the eminence now called Fort Greene 
Park, a commandingf heiirht where were mounted 
five guns. The number of guns mounted upon 



Brooklyn 




BROWER'S MILL, QOWANUS. 

THE YELLOW MILL IS SEEN IN THE DISTANCE. 



the works from Fort Putnam to F"ort Defiance 
was thirty-fi^'e — mainly ei^^hteen-pounders — an 
armament in part captured from Ticonderoora. 

From this fort the Hne extended north- 
westerly to a 

spring" at the - i---^ ~- ^-^^ 

verge of the Wall- 
about, near the 
corner of Flush- 
ing and Portland 
Avenues. T h i s 
interior line of de- 
fence was nearly 
two miles long. 

Between these forts were lines of trenches fur- 
ther defended by trees and sharpened stakes, 
forminof an abatis, in the construction of 
which the Continental woodsmen were always 
proficient. Within this line of defence was 
Fort Stirling, which was back near Columbia 
Heights. 

It is difficult after a century of grading and 
building to conceive that an extensive morass 
then covered nearly all the lands south of the 
present Hamilton Avenue, save about the 
small island heis.rht at Red Hook. Ciowanus. 
with sexcral large ponds raised by Brower's 



234 Brooklyn 

Mill-dam, flooded and made impassable nearly- 
all the area extending from Fourth Avenue to 
Smith Street. This was crossed by a narrow 
causeway alon^' Freeke's Mill-pond. On the 
higher lands beyond, extending from Green- 
wood along Prospect Park towards East New 
York, were dense woodlands, that were only 
practicable for an advancing army by certain 
passes or narrow wood-roads. The principal 
route from the Narrows to Brooklyn was 
along the site of Third Avenue by a good road 
then known as the Shore Road. 

The battle of August 27, 1776, was fought 
almost entirely outside this line of fortifica- 
tions. Knowing that the British forces had 
been moving towards Brooklyn from the Nar- 
rows, General Putnam had posted troops in de- 
tachments in order to check the hostile columns 
as they should come through the wood-roacls 
and passes. It was natural to expect the prin- 
cipal British advance by the Shore Road, as 
there they would be at all times within sup- 
porting distance of the fleet. 

On August 26th the Hessians under de 
Heister had occupied Flatbush, and Lord 
Cornwallis had reached nearly to F"latlands. 

In the forenoon of the 27th, Stirling com- 



Brooklyn 235 

manded the patriot ri^ht, cxtendine^ from the 
shore near the foot of Twenty-third Street up 
Greenwood Heights about to the corner of 
Fifth Avenue and Third Street. This position 
was to repel the expected attack by the route 
of the Shore Road. Sulhvan commanded the 
centre, which was an irregular congeries of 
militia posted along the summits of hills in 
Prospect Park and across the Flatbush Road. 
Colonel Miles with the ist Pennsylvania regi- 
ment occupied the hills near the Clove Road 
to the south of Bedford, with some Connecticut 
levies continuing the line still further east- 
ward. Instead of a co-ordinated supporting line 
of battle, these dispositions were intended as 
little more than a body of skirmishers, too 
widely strung-out to be opposed to an actual 
attack. 

The beginning of a movement of British 
troops at daylight on the Shore Road, and the 
evident efforts of the fleet to sail up the Bay, 
which the light wind and ebb tide preventetl, 
indicated that the hardest fighting would be 
1)\- the right under Stirling. The entire patriot 
force inside and without the entrenchments 
was 5500. The British force was over 16,000 
men. While the troojjs were facing each 



236 Brooklyn 

other along this position, a strong flanking 
column under Sir Henry Clinton, with Lord 
Howe the commander-in-chief, had stealthily 
marched from Flatbush to East New York, dur- 
inij the niofht, and had followed a sunken road 
through the present Cemetery of the Ever- 
greens, called the Jamaica Pass, This was 
about five miles to the east of Sullivan's posi- 
tion. Before daylight, at about a mile from 
the Pass, the column halted and sent forward a 
force which captured the American patrol and 
officers, and soon after a detachment secured 
the Pass. The light infantry advanced at the 
first appearance of day, and occupied the 
heights of Bushwick, followed by the guards 
with the field-pieces under Lord Percy, and 
the 49th regiment with four guns and the 
baggage brought up the rear. 

After breakfasting, the flanking column 
marched along the turnpike to Bedford, where 
they arrived at half-past eight o'clock ; thence 
they advanced along the rear of Miles's troops, 
who were unconscious that they were being 
surrounded. 

P"earfully outnumbered as they were, the 
Americans were now attacked in front by 
the Hessians advancing from Platbush under 



Brooklyn 



-o/ 



General de Heister, and in the rear by this 
flanking column. The result was disasti'ous. 
Sullivan's command was cut to pieces and 
himself captured. Terrible slaughter occurred 
in the woods and the slopes towards Fourth 
Avenue. The only escape not closed by the 
British was across the mill-dam and marshes 
of Go wan us. 

Meanwhile Cornwallis was detached to at- 
tack Stirling's line, which had still held its 
position on the western side of Prospect 
Heights. Desperate indeed was the plight 
of this devoted remnant of the army, outnum- 
bered on all sides. General Grant, the British 
commander in front, had pressed forward 
(after having repeatedly been driven back) 
and finally surrounded and captured Atlee's 
riflemen. Stirling gallantly determined to at- 
tack Cornwallis, and drive him back and so 
get an opportunity to cross by Brower's Mill- 
dam to the defences of Fort Box. Here was 
the heroism of the day. Taking command 
of Smallwood's gallant Maryland regiment and 
forming in the vicinity of Fifth Avenue and 
Tenth Street, Stirling led these brave young 
Marylanders three times in a charge on Corn- 
wallis's lines. Closino' their ranks as thev were 



238 Brooklyn 

cut down by grape and canister, the Maryland 
onset drove the I)ritis]i back behind the stone 
Cortelyou house. Once they forced the gun- 
ners from their guns, but at hist, overwhehned 
by numbers, the survivors fell back, leaving 256 
killed out of 400. It was the sight of this bril- 
liant charge and the spirited but frightfully un- 
equal contest that caused Washington to wring 
his hands in anguish and say : " Good God ! 
what brave fellows I must lose this day !" 

While these Marylanders gallantly sacrificed 
their lives to hold Cornwallis in check, a large 
portion of Stirling's command crossed the 
Gowanus Creek and brought the tattered col- 
ors of Smallwood's regiment and over twenty 
prisoners within the lines. The battle was 
over at noon. 1 he bodies of the gallant Mary- 
land heroes — the Bower of the army — were 
afterward buried on a small knoll or island. 
Third Avenue runs across it, between Seventh 
and l^igluh Stn-c-ts, but its site; is far below the 
present street level. 

In estimating the service of these Mary- 
landers, it is to be recalled that they were 
\oung, never before under fire, and w(;re led 
without their own colonel, who was detached 
the day before (or a court-martial in New 



Brookh n 239 

York. When the charijes were made, the 
troops had ah'<'ady been several hours tiL^ditino-, 
and had to re-form iimler fire, atter it was phiin 
that the l)attle was lost. The attacks were 
up an ascent, ao-ainst superior numbers, strono- 
artiller)', and an overwhelming" body of se^a- 
soned veterans. Even the assault and death 
of Montgomery at Quebec were not more 
gallant. Unlike that hopeless attack, the 
]\Iar)landers accomplished their purpose by 
their sacrifice, and stopped the advance of 
Cornwallis. The brillianc\-, dash, and steady 
persistence of this charge have not been prop- 
erly recognized. 

After the repulse of the patriot army, the 
battle ceased. The prudence of Lord Howe 
would not permit the English arm\ to move 
upon the entrenchments. Bunker Hill with 
its terrible memories was too recent. 

The next da)', the 2Sth, Washington rein- 
forced the Ih'ooklyn troops, increasing their 
number to 9000. Among them were Colonel 
Glover's battalion of fishermen and sailors from 
Salem and Marblehead. On that da\- heavy 
rain prc\cnt<-d an attack. In the aftrrnoon 
the British began regular siege approaches 
towards Fort Putnam bv a trench starting 



240 Brooklyn 

from the present Clinton Avenue near the 
corner of De Kalb Avenue. 

A council of war decided on evacuation. 
Even in this extremity Washington caused an 
elaborate statement of reasons to be drawn up 
as the grounds of his action. That nitrht, 
aided by the dense fog, the entire body were 
rowed over by Colonel Glover's Marblehead 
boatmen. The skill and admirable mastery of 
detail in this retreat were Washington's. For 
many hours he sat on his horse at the ferry, 
patiently superintending the embarkation. At 
least on one occasion he had to check a rush 
of impetuous and alarmed men from crowding 
into the boats. Finally with the last crew he 
embarked. The retreat of the entire force 
from Long Island was safely effected. At four 
o'clock only empty trenches were revealed to 
the invaders. 

In Prospect Park is a monument to the 
heroism of this gallant Maryland regiment. 
At different streets are memorial tablets to 
mark the lines of defence. Perhaps some day 
a statue of Washington, near the old ferry, 
will mark the spot where his prudence and skill 
saved the American Army. 

During the British occupation the noble for- 



# 




MONUMENT TO MARYLAND'S "400. 



241 



242 Brooklyn 

ests of Brooklyn were destroyed. One may 
search in vain for any oaks or elms about the 
City that are really ancient. 

The mention of the Wallabout and the pres- 
ent site of the Navy Yard recall some of the 
most painful memories of our history — the 
horrors of the prison-ships. Few indeed are 
the Revolutionary families that have not had 
deep sorrows connected with the ships IVhitbw 
Good Hope, Old Jersey, JoJin, Falniouih, and 
other hulks, where the martyrs ended their 
severe captivity. The bodies of the victims 
— havingr been removed from time to time — 
are now, it is hoped, in their final resting- 
place on the westerly front of Fort Greene 
Park opposite the Plaza. As yet no monu- 
ment, not even an inscription, marks the spot 
where were reverently laid the bones of 1 1,500 
martyrs to American liberty. 

The Navy Yard, starting in 1824, has become 
the foremost in the country. Here are gathered 
trophies of the Nation's battles on many seas. 
In a little enclosure near the Commandant's 
office, are grouped captured ordnance, with a 
howitzer that did service under Hull on the 
Constitution. Trophies from the Spanish war 
have lately been added to this collection. Here 




O -I 
a: < 






3 I- UJ 

o o z 



^, Q 



O; 



243 



244 Brooklyn 

are the guns taken from the burnt and shattered 
Ahmrante Oqiicndo and Vizcaya, and by them 
is mounted a submarine contact mine from the 
defences of Guantanamo, which the Texas 
broke adrift without exploding the deadly con- 
tents. Not far away was built the ill-fated 
battleship Alainc. In these docks were out- 
fitted many of the fleet that fought the battle of 
Santiago. In the Spanish war, the Brooklyn 
Navy Yard was where most of the yachts and 
merchant steamers, purchased in emergency, 
were converted into cruisers. Under Naval 
Constructor Bowles, the unparalleled record 
was made in 1898 of thirty-four vessels thus 
converted and fitted out for service in the aux- 
iliary navy in ninety-three days ! 

At the southern shore of the enlarged 
Brooklyn are the forts and batteries defend- 
ing this part of Long Island. Under the mod- 
ern defences of Fort Hamilton, still is preserved 
Fort Lafayette, an island structure of masonry, 
valueless for war, but ever to be kept for its 
associations. Built in 18 12 to defend the Nar- 
rows, its name was changed at the time of La- 
fayette's return in 1824. In 1861, it was used 
to imprison those from Maryland and the bor- 
der States, whose loyalty the Federal Adminis- 



Brooklyn 



245 



tration distrusted. When the judo^es of Brook- 
lyn issued writs of habeas corpus to bring- up 
these political suspects, and inquire into the 
justice of their captivity, the remedy was to 




FORT LAFAYETTE, N. Y. NARROWS. 

hurry the prisoners to F"ort Warren in Boston 
Harbor, beyond the reach of the process of 
New York courts. 

Here also, in 1862, a division commander of 
McClellan's army was held prisoner. General 
Charles P. Stone, a o-raduate of West Point, 
was blamed for the disaster at Ball's Bhiff. 



246 



Brooklvn 



By secret orders of Secretary Stanton, he was 
arrested at midnight, hurried to New York, 
and kept forty-nine days in soHtary confine- 
ment in Fort Lafayette, without trial, charges. 




BROOKLYN INSTITUTE MUSEUM. 



or answer to his appeals for a hearing ! Con- 
gress finally vindicated him and set him free, 
after one hundred and eighty-nine days' im- 
prisonment. 

The interior of the Fort was burned out in 
the winter of 1869. Its armament has never 




HENRY WARD BEECHER. 



248 Brooklyn 

been replaced. The dark red circular walls 
stand at the opposite end of the Bay from the 
Statue of Liberty, and furnish an impressive 
contrast, in their memories of an American 
Bastille. 

On the completion of the new Shore Road, 
following the contour of the Narrows, an ad- 
mirable approach upon the bluff overlooking 
the Bay will lead the visitor to this Golden 
Gate of the commerce of New York. 

The traditions of home rule, local self-gov- 
ernment, and civic conscience have come down 
from the early Brooklyn agitations against the 
government of Peter Stuyvesant. Brooklyn- 
ites before consolidation with the greater city 
had a liberal home-rule charter that was first 
administered under Mayor Seth Low. Through 
his government, the " Brooklyn plan " became 
the ideal of other municipalities. 

The ancient zeal for education and schools 
has not declined. Besides the college, acad- 
emy, and public schools, two Brooklyn institu- 
tions distinctively illustrate the modern trend 
of popular municipal education. The Pratt 
Institute, with its wide and helpful teaching in 
the industrial arts, is perhaps the most famous 
of all Brooklvn benevolences. But the enlarwd 



Brooklyn 



249 



and expandinor Brooklyn Institute, with its 
multiform departments, its generous held of 
lectureships, and its museum, is destined to 
become the model for organizations planned 
to diffuse popular culture in cities. 

The regard of Brooklyn for the Church and 
the influence of the clergy on the life of 
Brooklyn are proverbial. To recall the names 
of Brooklyn's clergy is to mention many leaders 
of the American pulpit. Not a little of their 
inspiration has come from the influence and 
history of Brooklyn itself. In its growth from 
village to city, and then to borough, it has 
developed along the lines of equality of social 
opportunity, and thus unconsciously has been 
reaping the fruits of the lives and examples of 
its Dutch founders. 




PRINCETON 

PLANTING AND TILLING 

Bv WILLIAM M. SLOANL 

PRINCETON is by no means one of the 
* oldest settlements in the State of Xew 
Jersey, and yet it has a history of more than 
two centuries, the first homestead having been 
estabHshed there in 1682. Although situated 
midway, or nearly so, between two of the 
largest Colonial towns, and nearly equidistant 
from the head of navigation on two important 
streams, the Raritan and the Delaware, it re- 
mained a quiet and unimportant hamlet for 
over half a century. Most of the travel be- 
tween New York and Philadelphia went by 
way of Perth Amboy and Camden ; there was 
little to interrupt the humble labors of the 
settlers in clearing the forest and tilling the 
soil. 

Yet the roll-call of Princeton's pioneers re- 



2^)2 



Princeton 



veals names whicli are now synonymous with 
patriotism and famous wherever American his- 
tory is studied : Stockton, Paterson, Boudinot, 
Randolph, and others almost as renowned. 
Their instinctive Americanism is first recorded 
in a successful protest to the provincial author- 
ities against the quartering of British troops 
in their humble homes during the French and 
Indian War. 

October 22, 1746, the College of New Jer- 
sey was chartered by Governor Hamilton, an 
act notable in American history because the 
first of its kind performed without authoriza- 
tion from England or the consent even of 
the provincial legislature. The institution was 
opened under President Dickinson in May, 
1747, at Elizabethtown. After his death, 
which occurred in October of the same year, 
the few students were transferred to Newark 
and put under the care of the Rev. Aaron 
Burr, one of the twelve trustees. On the 
fourteenth of the following September, Jona- 
than Belcher, just appointed governor, granted 
a new charter fuller and more formal than the 
first. His interest in the college was from 
the outset very great, and his opinion, already 
formed, that Princeton was the most desirable 



2 54 Princeton 

spot for its permanent site ultimately prevailed, 
the citizens of the hamlet proving more active 
and liberal than those of New Brunswick, al- 
ready a good-sized town, to which likewise 
terms were proposed " for fixing the college in 
that place." 

Thereafter the little settlement grew rapidly 
and soon became a considerable village. In 
1756 the new buildings were virtually com- 
pleted and the college was transferred to its 
future home. Notable men from throughout 
the State and from the cities of New York 
and Philadelphia became interested in the 
new seat of learning. More noteworthy still 
were those who taught and those who studied 
in it. Within a decade after the completion 
of Nassau Hall the names of Burr, Edwards, 
Witherspoon, of Livingston, Rush and Ells- 
worth, of James Manning, Luther Martin and 
Nathaniel Niles became Princeton names. 
The stream of influential patronage once 
started continued to flow until long after the 
Revolution. It included men from New Eng- 
land on the one hand, and from the South on 
the other, with, of course, a powerful element 
from the Middle States. 

Princeton ColleL^e is the child of Yale. But 



^5^ Princeton 

the parting was not entirely amicable. Theo- 
logical controversy grew very fierce, even for 
the Connecticut Valley, in the da)s of White- 
field's preaching. The conservatives or Old 
Lights held the reins and were not kindly dis- 
posed toward the innovators or New Lights. 
The trouble culminated in the expulsion from 
Yale of David Brainerd because, defying the 
Faculty's express command, he attended New 
Light meetings and would not profess peni- 
tence for his fault. This occurred in 1 739 ; 
thereafter an even stronger feeling of discon- 
tent smouldered amono- the liberal Calvinists 
until finally the way was clear for founding a 
new training-school for the ministry and the 
learned professions on broad and generous 
lines, Brainerd became a most successful and 
famous missionary. He was betrothed to the 
daughter of Jonathan Edwards and died at her 
father's house, a victim of his own laborious 
and devoted life. This was less than a year after 
the College of New Jersey had been founded by 
a body of liberal-minded men of all orthodox 
denominations, under the influence of a few 
leaders who sympathized with both Brainerd 
and the Edwards theology. The first charter 
was granted by an Episcopalian governor to 



Princeton 257 

four Presbyterian clergymen, and one of the 
original trustees was a Quaker. Governor 
Belcher, who enlarged the charter and made 
the College " his aciopted daughter," was a 
man of the most catholic feeling. Fourteen 
of the trustees under the permanent constitu- 
tion were Presbyterian clergymen, an arrange- 
ment corresponding to the similar one whereby 
the majority of the governing body of Yale 
was composed of Congregational ministers. 
This wise guardianship has kept the two univer- 
sities true to their traditions, and the tlourishinor 
condition of both is the strongest proof any- 
where afforded that temporal affairs do not 
necessarily suffer when committed to the 
charge of spiritual advisers. Considerable 
sums of money were raised in England by the 
personal solicitation of Tennent and Davies, 
two clergymen sent out for the purpose by 
the Trustees. The ten laymen of the first 
Princeton board represented various orthodox 
denominations, including Episcopalians and 
Quakers. There is not a syllable in the charter 
concerning creeds, confessions, or religious 
tests. It is very significant of the vast im- 
provement in public moralit)- that a college 
founded under such auspices a hundred and 



258 Princeton 

fifty years ago was partly endowed and sup- 
ported by lotteries authorized and drawn both 
in Connecticut and New Jersey. 

From the day when the College was installed 
in its grand new home, history-making went on 
apace in Princeton. Nassau Hall was a ma- 
jestic building for those days ; distinguished 
foreign visitors to America all noted its dimen- 
sions and architecture in their written accounts 
of travel. Indeed, even now, with the taste- 
less alterations of chimneys, roofs and towers 
made necessary by fire and carried through 
with ruthless economy, it may be considered 
one of the great monumental college build- 
ings in America. It is, however, far more 
than this ; we assert without fear of contradic- 
tion that it has no peer as the most historic 
university pile in the world. This contention 
rests on the fact that it saw the discomfiture of 
the British at the ebb-tide of the American re- 
bellion, harbored the Government of the United 
States in its critical moments and cradled the 
Constitution-makers of the greatest existing 
republic. No other university hall has been 
by turns fortress and barrack, legislative cham- 
ber and political nursery in the birththroes of 
any land comparable to our land. 



Princeton 259 

The building was desicrned to be complete 
in itself ; it contained lodo-ines for a hundred 
and forty-seven students, with a refectory, 
library and chapel. The class which entered 
under Dickinson, the first president, had six 
members, of whom five became clergymen. 
His untimely death a year after his election 
made his administration the shortest but one 
in the College history. During the ten years 
of Burr's tenure of office (i 747-1 757) the total 
number of students was a hundred and four- 
teen ; half of them entered the ministry. The 
short presidency of Jonathan Edwards lasted 
but a few months. It gave the glory of his 
name, that of America's greatest metaphysician, 
to the College, the sacred memories of his res- 
idence to the venerable mansion now occupied 
by the Dean, and the hallowed custody of his 
mortal remains to the Princeton graveyard, a 
spot to which thousands have made their pil- 
grimage for the sake of his great renown. In 
this enclosure he lies beside his son-in-law. 
the Rev. Aaron Burr, who was his predecessor. 
At his feet are the ashes of the brilliant and er- 
ratic grandson, the Aaron Burr so well known 
to students of American history. President 
Davies, who followed Edwards, held his office 



2')' i 



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Q 3 



262 Princeton 

a hundred and fourteen, less than a quarter, 
became clergymen, an average of between four 
and five a year. This phenomenon was due to 
the fact that Witherspoon, though lecturing 
on Divinity like his predecessors, was vastly 
more interested in political than in religious phi- 
losophy. So notorious was this fact that many 
a pious youth bent on entering the ministry 
passed the very doors of liberal Princeton to 
seek the intense atmosphere of Yale orthodoxy, 
while many a boy patriot from New England 
came hither to seek the distinction of being 
taught by Dr. Witherspoon. 

The first eight years of Witherspoon's presi- 
dency embraced the period of political fer- 
ment in the Colonies which ushered in the War 
of the Revolution. From the very beginning 
of his residence in America, the new president 
espoused the Colonial cause in every conflict 
with Great Britain ; he was soon accounted 
" as high a son of liberty as any man in 
America." Not content with enlarging and 
improving the College course, he collected 
funds throughout the Colonies from Boston to 
Charleston, and even laid Jamaica under con- 
tribution to fill the depleted College chest. 
From the pulpit of the old First Church his 



264 Princeton 

voice ranof out in denunciation of tlie Enorlish 
administration, until in his native land he was 
branded as a rebel and a traitor. The spread 
of the Reformation was more largely due to 
the fact that Luther was a professor in the 
University of Wittenberg than to any other 
single cause ; the adherence to the Revolution 
of the powerful Scotch and Scotch-Irish ele- 
ment in the Colonies was chiefly if not entirely 
secured by the teachings of John Witherspoon 
from his professor's chair in Nassau Hall. To 
him and John Dickinson, author of the Farinci^' s 
Letters, belongs the credit of having convinced 
the sober middle classes of the great middle 
Colonies that the breach with England was not 
merely inevitable, but just and to their interest. 
But Witherspoon was more than a teacher, 
he was a practical statesman. His country- 
seat was a farm on the southern slope of Rocky 
Hill, about a mile due north of Nassau Hall. 
Its solid stone walls still bear the classic name 
which he gave it, of Tusculum. In his hours 
of retirement at that beloved home he seems 
to have brooded more on the rights of man 
than on human depravity, more on law than on 
theology, more on Providence in His present 
dealino-s with men than on the remoter mean- 



Princeton 265 

ings of God's Word. In the convention which 
framed the constitution of New Jersey, he 
amazed the other delegates by his technical 
knowledge of administration and led in their 
constructive labors ; he assisted in the over- 
throw of William Franklin, the royal gover- 
nor ; was elected to the Continental Congress, 
and in the critical hour spurred on the lagging 
members who hesitated to take the fatal step 
of authorizing their president and secretary to 
sign and issue the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. With solemn emphasis he declared : 

" For my own part, of property I have some, of reputa- 
tion more. That reputation is staked, that property is 
pledged on the issue of this contest ; and although these 
gray hairs must soon descend into the sepulchre, I would 
infinitely rather that they descend thither by the hand of 
the executioner, than desert at this crisis the sacred 
cause of my country." 

The word " God " occurs but once in that 
famous document. Jefferson wrote it with a 
small " g." Witherspoon was the solitary 
clergyman among the signers ; neither he nor 
his neighbor, friend, and supporter, Richard 
Stockton, of Morven, who was a member of his 
church, set their hands the less firmly to sign 
the paper. Finally, Witherspoon was a mem- 



266 Princeton 

ber of the secret committee of Congress which 
really found the means of moral and material 
support for the war clown to its close. He was 
chosen in the dark hours of November, 1776, 
to confer with Washington on the military 
crisis ; he was a member, with Richard Henry 
Lee and John Adams, of the committee ap- 
pointed that same winter to fire the drooping 
spirits of the rebels when Congress was driven 
from Philadelphia to Baltimore. He was a 
member, too, of the boards of war and finance, 
wrote state papers on the currency, and framed 
many of the most important bills passed by the 
Continental Congress. It was not unnatural 
that when, at the close of the war, Congress 
was terrified by unpaid and unruly Continentals 
battering at its doors in Philadelphia, it should 
seek refuge and council, as it did, in John 
Witherspoon's college. 

Thus it happened that Nassau Hall became 
one of the hearthstones on which the fires of 
patriotism burned brightest. From 1766 to 
1776 there were graduated two hundred and 
thirty young Americans. What their temper 
and feeling must have been may be judged 
from the names of those among them who 
afterwards became eminent in public life. Eph- 



Princeton 267 

raim Brevard, Plerrepont Edwards, Churchill 
Houston, John Henry, John Beatty, James 
Linn, Frederick Frelinghuysen, Gunning Bed- 
ford, Hugh Brackinridge, Philip Freneau, 
James Madison, Aaron Burr, Henry Lee, 
Aaron Ogden, Brockholst Livingston, and 
Wm. Richardson Davie. Those ten years 
produced twelve Princetonians who sat in the 
Continental Congress, six who sat in the 
Constitutional Convention, one President of 
the United States, one Vice-President, twenty- 
four members of Congress, three Judges of the 
Supreme Court, one Secretary of State, one 
Postmaster-General, three Attorneys-General, 
and two foreign ministers. It may well be 
supposed that the clergymen who were their 
comrades in those days of ferment were, like 
their great teacher, no opponents of political 
preaching. The influence of such a body of 
young men, when young men seized and held 
the reins, was incalculable. 

" We have no public news," writes James 
Madison from Princeton on July 23, 1770, to 
his friend, Thomas Martin, 

^' but the base conduct of the merchants in New York in 
breaking through their spirited resolutions not to import ; 
a distinct account of which, I sui)pose, will be in the 



268 Princeton 

Virginia Gazette before this arrives. The letter to the 
merchants in Philadelphia, requesting their concurrence, 
was lately burned by the students of this place in the 
college yard, all of them appearing in their black gowns 
and the bell tolling. . . . There are about 115 
in the College and in the Grammar School, all of them 
in American cloth." 

" Last week, to show our patriotism," wrote 
in 1774 another Princeton student, Charles 
Beatty, 

" we gathered all the steward's winter store of tea, and 
having made a fire in the campus we there burnt near a 
dozen pounds, tolled the bell, and made many spirited 
resolves. But this was not all. Poor Mr. Hutchinson's 
effigy shared the same fate with the tea, having a tea- 
canister tied about his neck." 

With such a nursery of patriotism at its very 
hub, the temper of the surrounding commun- 
ity can easily be pictured. The proposition 
for a provincial congress came from Prince- 
ton. John Hart, a farmer from the neighbor- 
ing township of Hopewell, and Abraham 
Clark, a farmer's son from the neighboring 
county, were associated with graduates from 
Princeton College and deles^ates from Prince- 
ton town in conducting its deliberations. Both 
were made delegates to the Continental Con- 
gress and both, along with Witherspoon and 



Princeton 269 

Stockton, were signers of the Declaration of 
Independence. Even Francis Hopkinson, the 
fifth signer for this State, a Philadelphian in 
reahty, though a temporary resident of Bor- 
dentown, was, as the friend and co-worker of 




RICHARD STOCKTON 

THE SIGNER " 



Freneau and Brackinridge, intimately associ- 
ated with Princeton influence. When rebellion 
was finally in full swing, the Committee of 
Safety for New Jersey held its sessions here, 
probably in Nassau Hall, possibly in the famous 
tavern. It is well known that neither the 



270 Princeton 

Continental Army nor the people of the United 
States at large were profoundly impressed by 
the Declaration of Independence. This was 
not the case in Princeton, for the correspon- 
dent of a Philadelphia paper wrote that on 
July 9, 1776, " Nassau Hall was grandly illumi- 
inated and independency proclaimed under a 
triple volley of musketry, and universal accla- 
mation for the prosperity of the United States, 
with the greatest decorum." 

Seven days previous to this demonstration, 
the Provincial Concrress, sittinof at Trenton, 
had adopted a new State constitution ; nine 
days later the first Legislature of the State as- 
sembled in Nassau Hall — the College library 
room — and chose Livingston governor. They 
continued more or less intermittently in session 
until the following October after the invasion 
of the State by British forces. Before the 
invaders they fled to Trenton, then to Burl- 
ington, to Pittstown, and finally to Haddon- 
field. After the battles of Princeton and 
Trenton they promptly returned to their first 
seat and resumed their sessions. 

The storm of war broke upon Princeton early 
in December of the same year, 1776. The 



Princeton 271 

British x\rmy, landed from Howe's fleet in New 
York Bay, had entirely worsted the American 
forces. Brooklyn, New York, Fort Washing- 
ton with Fort Lee had been successively aban- 
doned, and Washinc^ton in his memorable re- 
treat across this State reached Princeton on 
the first of December. Stirling, with one 
thousand two hundred Continentals, was left 
as a rear-guard, while the Commander-in-Chief 
with the rest, one thousand eight hundred, and 
his stores, pushed on to Trenton, whence he 
crossed in safety to the right bank of the Del- 
aware. On the seventh, Cornwallis entered 
Princeton at the head of six thousand Anglo- 
Hessian veterans, drivino- Stirlinif before him. 
The invaders were quartered in the College and 
in the church. Both Tusculum and Morven, 
the estates of the arch-rebels Witherspoon and 
Stockton, were pillaged, and the new house of 
Sergeant was burnt. All the neighboring 
farms were laid under contribution for forage. 
Popular disaffection followed in the course 
of Washing-ton's retreat. Laro-e numbers of 
the people and many of the State officials ac- 
cepted the English offers of amnest)-. The 
patriots were compelled to abandon their 
homes and flee across the Delaware. Two rcLfi- 



2-] 2 Princeton 

meats were left by Cornwallis in Princeton as 
a garrison. The rest of his troops were estab- 
lished in winter (|uartt>rs at New Hninswick, 
rrenton and Bordentown. \\'ashini;ton's thin 
and starvino^ line stretched alono- the Delaware 
{ko\w Coryell's berry to Bristol. Congress tied 
to Baltimore. Putnam, with ni^ contklence in 
Washinoton's ability e\t.'n to hold his v^roiuul. 
was makini^ ready for a desptMate defence of 
Philadelphia. 

There was as yet no blench alliance, no ad- 
equate supply of money raised either at home 
or abroad, no rei^ular or even semi-regular 
army, — nothing, apparently, but a disorderly 
little rebellion ; for the first promise of con- 
stancy in Xt^w b^nglandai\d of rt^gular support 
for a considtTable force of volunteers had had 
as yet no fultUment. The Knglish felt that 
the early ardor of radical and noisy rebels 
would fade like a mist before Howe's success; 
Canada was lost ; W^w York as far as the 
Highlands was in British hands; so also were 
New Jersey and Long Island, which latter vir- 
tually controlled Connecticut, Howe believed 
the rebellion was broken ; CcMMiwallis had en- 
gaged passage to return home. 

While the British were lulled into securitv, 



2 74 Princeton 

Washington and the patriots, though desper- 
ate were undaunted. A well considered and 
daring plan for a decisive sally from their lines 
was formed and carried to a successful issue. 
On Christmas night two thousand four hun- 
dred men were ferried over the Delaware nine 
miles above Trenton ; the crossing was most 
dangerous, owing to the swollen waters and 
the floating ice ; the ensuing march was made 
in the teeth of a dreadful storm. The affair at 
Trenton was scarcely a battle, it was rather a 
surprise ; the one thousand two hundred Hes- 
sians were taken unawares and only a hundred 
and sixty-two escaped ; nearly a thousand were 
captured. What made it a great event was 
its electrical effect in restoring courage to 
patriots everywhere, together with the inesti- 
mable value to Washington's troops of the cap- 
tured stores and arms. He did not occupy 
the place at all, but returned immediately to 
his ericampment on the other shore to 
refit. 

The ensuing week was certainly the most 
remarkable oi the Revolution. The Eno-Hsh in 
New York were thrown into consternation. 
Cornwallis hastened back to Princeton, where 
he collected between seven and eight thousand 



Princeton 275 

men, the flower of the British army. Wash- 
ington's force, on the other hand, was rein- 
forced with a speed and zeal bordering on the 
miraculous. Three thousand volunteers came 
in from the neighborhood and from Philadel- 
phia. The term of service for nine hundred 
of his men would expire on New Year's day ; 
these were easily induced, in the new turn of 
affairs, to remain six weeks longer. Wash- 
ington and John Stark both pledged their 
private fortunes and Robert Morris raised 
fifty thousand dollars in Philadelphia. The 
mourning of the patriots throughout the Mid- 
dle States was changed into rejoicing. 

On the thirtieth of December the American 
army began to recross the Delaware ; the 
movement was slow and difficult owing to the 
ice, but was completed the following day. On 
January i, 1777, Washington wrote from Tren- 
ton that he had about two thousand two hun- 
dred men with him, that Mifflin had about one 
thousand eight hundred men at Bordentown 
on the rieht wino- and that Cadwalader had 
about as many more at Crosswicks, some miles 
to the east. He thought that no more than 
one thousand eisfht hundred of those who 
passed the river with himself were available 



276 Princeton 

for fighting, but he intended to " pursue the 
enemy and break up their quarters." 

Next day CornwalHs, leaving three regi- 
ments and a company of cavalry at Princeton, 
set out by the old "King's Highway" for 
Trenton. At Maidenhead, now Lawrenceville, 
there was a skirmish between his van and the 
American outposts; thence for over five miles 
his march was harassed by irregular bodies of 
his foe, General Hand being stationed in com- 
mand of a detachment at Shabbakong creek, 
and General Greene about a mile this side of 
Trenton. It was four o'clock, and therefore 
late in the short winter day when the English 
General reached the outskirts of the city. 
There stood Washington himself with a few 
more detachments, ready still further to delay 
the British march through the town. With- 
drawing slowly, the last Continental crossed 
the bridge over the Assanpink in safety, to fall 
behind earthworks, which in anticipation of the 
event had been thrown up and fortified with 
batteries on the high banks behind. 

The British attacked at once, but were re- 
pulsed ; undismayed they pressed on again, 
and again they were driven back across the 
narrow stream. The spirited conflict con- 




I 5 



278 Princeton 

tinued until nightfall, when the assailants 
finally gave up and withdrew to bivouac, 
hoping to renew the fight next morning. In 
this affair on the Assanpink about a hundred 
and fifty, mostly British, were killed. Corn- 
wallis dispatched messengers to summon the 
men he had left at Maidenhead and Princeton, 
determined if possible to surround, overwhelm 
and annihilate Washington next day. But the 
battle on the Assanpink was destined to be the 
only real fighting in Trenton. Washington had 
in mind the strategic move which rendered this 
campaign one of his greatest, if not his very 
greatest. He determined to outflank his foe 
by a circuitous march to Princeton over the 
unguarded road on the south side of the 
Assanpink. 

The night was dark and cold ; the camp- 
fires of both lines burned strong and bright. 
Behind those of Cornwallis there was a bustle 
of preparation for the next day's battle ; be- 
hind those of Washington there was a stealthy 
making ready for retreat. The baggage was 
packed and dispatched to Burlington ; a few 
men were detached to keep the fires well fed 
and clear ; the rest silently stole away about 
midniofht. Their march was lonor between 



Princeton 279 

sixteen and eighteen miles, and difficult be- 
cause the frost had turned the mud on the 
roads into hummocks. But at sunrise on the 
third of January the head of the column had 
crossed Stony Brook by the bridge on the 
Quaker road, and stood about a mile and three- 
quarters from Princeton, awaiting the result of 
a council of war. They were masked by the 
piece of woods which is still standing behind 
the Quaker meetings-house. It was determined 
that Washington with the main column should 
march across the fields, through a kind of 
depression in the rolling land intervening be- 
tween the meeting-house and Princeton, in 
order to reach the town as quickly as possible, 
Mercer, with three hundred and fifty men and 
two field-pieces, was to follow the road half a 
mile farther to its junction with the King's 
Highway, and there blow up the upper bridge 
over Stony Brook, that by which Cornwallis's 
reserve, marching to Trenton, must cross the 
stream. This would likewise detain Cornwallis 
himself on his return in pursuit. 

There were three actions in the battle of 
Princeton. Two of the three English regi- 
ments left in reserve at Princeton were under 



iSo 



Tiincc tiHi 



way ht'tinu's to ]o\\\ Cornwallis at TrtMiton. 
(^lu- o\ tlu'sr uiuKm" C'oliMul MawluHul, with 
ihrcH' I'cMiipainrs t>l horse, hail ahwuly crosscil 
SltMU' l>ri>ok aiul hail iliiulu-il ihc hill l>r\oiul, 
hc"loi\" the\ iK'st. licJ Meiirr (ollowinL; the rcKul 
ill the \alle\' below ; the othtM" was half a 
mile hi'hiiul, north ot the stream. Mawhoi>il 
([uiekl\ imiieil haek aiul, imiliiu; tlu- two. eii- 
i^UijcHl Mercer. The Ameriians wi-re armed 
with rilles whieh hail wo l)a\ onets, ami although 
iieaiU equal in mimher to the eiienw they 
wi-re tirst slowU thi-n rapiilU' ilrixi'ii up the 
hill to the liili^e south ol the Kiuv_;'s llii;hwa\' 
auil east ol tlu- Chiakei" ri>aJ. I'luw stood 
hrm I>eloi\' the tniuL; ol tlu- !'. Ui^lish, hut \ieKlt\l 
wlu'ii the eiuMin ehaii^ed ha\oiU'ts. In this 
eneouutei" Mereef was se\ei\"l\' wiuiuileil Awd 
K'lt Um- Jeail. Man\' otlua- ottieeis were like- 
wise wouiuled as tlu"\ huUi; l>aek, strixiui; to 
iall\ the tl\ iiiL; tiiu>i>s. 

W ashiuv'tou. hearing; the Immul;, sti^pju-d 
immediateU anil. lea\ iuv; the rest ot his col- 
unm to loUow their line ol maieh. put himself 
at the head iW the renns\l\ania \ olunteer.s 
Awd wheeled. .Sumnu>ninL; two pieees ol artil- 
ler\' \\c turm-d to join thi" retri-atin^' forces of 
McM-eer. Ihe Ihitish reaehed the I'ri'st of the 



Princeton 281 

hill in pursuit ]:)eforc they saw Washington's 
column. The sight brought them to a halt, 
and while they formed their artillery came 
up. It seemed to Washington a most critical 
moment. In an instant Mercer's command 
was fused with his own men, and placing him- 
self well out before the line he gave the order 
to advance. There was no halt until the 
Commander himself was within thirty yards of 
the foe ; at that instant both lines volleyed 
simultaneously. The fire was hasty and in- 
effective. Washington, as if by a miracle, was 
unscathed. As the smoke blew awa)-, an 
American brigade came in under Hitchcock, 
while Hand with his riflemen attacked the 
British flank. In a few moments Mawhood 
gave up the fight ; his troops, after a few brave 
efforts, broke and retreated over the hill up the 
valley of Stony Brook. The bridge was then 
destroyed. 

Meantime the head of the American column 
had reached the outskirts of Princeton. There, 
on the edge of the ravine now known as Spring- 
dale, was posted still a third British force com- 
posed of soldiers from the 40th and 55th Line. 
The Americans, with Stark at their head, 
attacked and drove them back as far as Nassau 



282 Princeton 

llall, inlo which ihc fu^Mtivcs hastily threw 
themselves. I'roni the windows scattered 
remnants of their regiments could be seen 
fleeing- through fields and byways toward New 
Brunswick. The American artillery began to 
play on the walls of the building ; one ball, it 
is said, crashed through tlu- roof and tore from 
its frame the portrait of George II., hanging 
in the Prayer Hall ; another is still imb(Mld(Ml in 
the venerable walls. A IVinceton militiaman, 
with the assistance of his neighbors, finally jjurst 
the door and the little garrison surrendc^red. 

Whf-n Donop retreated from Bordcntown to 
Princeton after the battle of Trenton, \ut threw 
up an arrow-head breastwork at th(; point not 
far from where Mercer and Stockton .Streets 
now join ; on this still lay a cannon (jf the size 
known as a thirty-two pounder, the carriage of 
which was dismantled. It was early morning 
when Cornwallis became aware tiiat his ex- 
pected battle would iioi be fought at Trenton ; 
the roar of artillery gave him the terrible as- 
surance that the blow had been struck on his 
w(;akened flank, — that his precious stores at 
N<-w iirunswick we-n- in danger. Swiftly h(; 
issued the lu^cessary orders and appeared at 
th<: west end of the town on the King's High- 



Princeton 28 



o 



way, just as Washington was leaving Prince- 
ton, his van having been delayed in crossing 
Stony Brook. The citizens had loaded the gun 
in the breastwork and on the approach of the 
intruders they fired it. This utterly deceived 
the English generals, for they thought them- 
selves facing a well-manned battery. It was 
some time, tradition says an hour, before they 
were undeceived and in that precious interval 
Washington collected his army and marched 
away. His forces were too weak to risk the 
venture of seizing Xew Brunswick, even tem- 
porarily ; accordingly he turned northwestward 
and reached Morristown in safety. There and 
at jMiddlebrook his headquarters practically 
remained for the rest of the war. The English 
were content to secure New Brunswick. 

In the battle of Princeton there were eno-ao-ed 
somewhat under two thousand men on each 
side. The actual fighting lasted less than half 
an hour. We lost very few men — so few that 
the number cannot be accurately reckoned — 
possibly thirty ; but we lost a brave general, 
Hugh Mercer, a colonel, a major, and three 
captains. The English soldiers fought with 
unsurpassed gallantry. They lost two hundred 
killed and two hundred and fift\- captured, but 



284 Princeton 

no officers of distinction. It was not, there- 
fore, a big fight, but it was none the less a 
great and decisive battle. How important 
Washington felt it to be, is attested by his 
personal exposure of himself. How decisive 
the great military critics have considered it, is 
shown by the fact that the campaign of which 
it was the finishing stroke is held by them to 
have been typical of his genius as a strategist. 
The two affairs of Trenton and Princeton are 
in the short histories of the Revolution q-qu- 
erally reckoned together. And naturally so, 
since they occurred so near to one another in 
time and place. But, strategically and tacti- 
cally examined, the battle of Trenton made 
good Washington's position behind the Dela- 
ware ; the battle of Princeton secured New 
Jersey and the Middle States. 

After the preliminary actions which took 
place in New England the remainder of the 
Revolution falls into three portions — the strug- 
gle for the Hudson, to secure communication 
between New England and the Middle States ; 
the struofofle for the Delaware, to secure com- 
munication between the Middle States and the 
South ; and thirdly, the effort to regain the 
South. After the battle of Princeton, Wash- 



Princeton 285 

ington was able to establish aline from Amboy 
around by the west and south to Morristown ; 
New England, the Middle and Southern 
States were in communication with each other 
and free. As a result of the first campaign by 
a numerous and well-equipped Anglo-German 
army the English held nothing but Newport 
in Rhode Island and New York City, with 
posts at King's Bridge on the north and at New 
Brunswick on the south. The proof was 
finally secured that Washington with a per- 
manent army such as the Colonies might, unas- 
sisted, have furnished him, would have been a 
match for any land force the English could 
have transported to America. 

For the remaining years of the war Prince- 
ton was held by the Americans. Both the 
Legislature of the State and the Council of 
Safety held their meetings within its precincts ; 
for a time Putnam was in command of the little 
garrison, for a time Sullivan. Early in 1781 
thirteen hundred mutinous Pennsylvanians of 
Washington's army marched away from Mor- 
ristown and came in a body to Princeton. 
They were met by emissaries from Clinton who 
strove to entice them from their allegiance. 
But. though mutinous, they'were not traitors, 



286 Princeton 

for they seized the British emissaries and 
handed them over to General Wayne to be 
treated as spies. A committee of Congress ap- 
peared and made such arrangements as pacified 
them. In the autumn of the same year the 
victory of Yorktown was celebrated with illu- 
minations and general rejoicings. The Col- 
lege was again in session with forty students 
and local prosperity was restored. In 1782 
there was held a meeting to support a continu- 
ance of the war. 

The Revolutionary epoch was fitly brought 
to a close by a meeting of Congress in Nas- 
sau Hall. On June 20, 1783, three hundred 
Pennsylvania soldiers who were discontented 
with the terms of their discharge marched from 
Lancaster to Philadelphia and beset the doors 
of Congress, holding that assembly imprisoned 
for three hours under threat of violence if 
their wrongs were not redressed. The legisla- 
tors resolved to adjourn to Princeton. They 
were made heartily welcome, the college halls 
were put at their disposal, and the houses of 
the citizens were hospitably opened for their 
entertainment. Their sessions were held reg- 
ularly in the College library for over four 
months, until the fourth of November, when 



Princeton 



287 



they adjourned to meet at Annapolis three 
weeks later. Washington was in Princeton 
twice during this time : once at commencement 
in September, when he made a present of fifty 




NASSAU HALU 

guineas to the trustees — a sum they spent for 
the portrait by Peale which now hangs in 
Nassau Hall, filling, it is said, the very frame 
from which that of George II. was shot away 
during the battle. The second time he came 
in October, at the request of Boudinot, Presi- 
dent of Congress, and a trustee of the College, 



2S8 



Ti iiu i't(Mi 



to yj\'<' .i(l\ iff toiuci Miiii' sinh w ('li'hu m.il Ins 
.IS the (>rj\iiii .iluui (>l .1 sl.iihliM;; .iint\ to 
(Kliiid llu' liKiilui'., i>l .1 milili.i li> M\.iml.im 
iiilci n.il (tulii , .iihlol I he iiuIiI.unmIiooI. \\\r 
( iimm.iiiilii mC Incl w.r; icrcivcil m Si>l('i\iM 
Sf.Moii .inil I oil;' I .il iil.iiol l>\ ilu- rii-.uli'iii on 
(he siU'i'css ol (he w.ii. lie irplirJ in lillino" 

lillM-. At I Ol illU-- 1«> ll.hllluUl lu' (UtUplCil 

wluli- in .11 liihl.iiu I' (Ml I iMi'.'it".-. .1 riu»in ii\ 
,1 lioii'.i- i\(i\\ i*|'l.U(il 1>\ llu' h.uul'.iMiU' Tn nr 
iU>imiloi\ 1)11 ll\c (Kinci *>l W il lu'i s|un)i» .lUil 
Nass.ui Slifcl'.. lull his rcsulcnrr w.i'. llu- 
toloni.il in.iii'.HMi ihu'c niilc. .i\\.i\ (>n the hill 
.iluuf ihc lowii ot l\(>ik\ Mill whuh h.r. Iniii 
|>i ("ai \ ( J ,1'. .1 hi'.loi h ,il miMiimiciii .iiul u\ ohi 
lioi\,ii\ mii'.i'iiiu 1 1\ I hi- 111 Ml ,ilil \ ot .Mrs. jo'.r 
|thiiu' ."^■'W ,11111, 1( w.i'. Iioiii ihi-. |>i.U(' ih.il he 
r.'.ihil 111'. l.iiihMr. 1.11 1'W ill .hMu'-.'. U>lhc.iiiu\. 
Ihil llw >'ic.ih-.l lui .i-.ioii iM riiiuclon's 
hi'.tiM\ w .!•; iMi ihc ihiilN 111-. I ol llu- •..iinc 
muiu h. ( ^>^i<l(^s^i h.ul .isscmhUsl in 1 he Ti .i\ i-i 
II. ill lo icrciNc m '.olcnuj .iihlu-nic I he ininr. U'f 
|>lcni|u>h'nl 1.11 \ liom the ,\ ri hci l.uuls. I heir 
weir |>H'Sfnl, l'i--.hlr>. ihr niiiulx'i •., W.r.hini;- 
liMi, Moiii'., llu' Mijui iniriuKni ot lin.uui\ 
I ii.rinc. ihi' I'lnuh in\o\, .iiul in.in\ olhrf 
men ol finnu'iiir, I he ion>i'.ni\ h.ul |iisl 



Princeton 289 

assembled when news came that the Treaty of 
Peace had been signed at \'ersailles. Many 
brilHant and beautiful women were present, and 
their unchecked delight doubled the enthusiasm 
of all. The reception was the most splendid 
public function thus far held by the now inde- 
pendent republic. On the twenty-fifth of 
November the British evacuated New York. 
Washington left Princeton to attend the cere- 
mon)-, and afterward journeyed by Annapolis 
to his home at ^Nlt. \"ernon. He believed that, 
his military career being concluded, he was to 
spend the rest of his days as a private gentleman. 
Providence had ordained otherwise. He had 
carried the difficult, strange and desultor\- War 
of the Revolution to a successful end ; he 
had, by wise counsel and firmness, averted the 
dangers of a civil war which seemed imminent, 
so far as he could judge from the temper of 
those about his headquarters at Newburgh. 
Once more he was to enter the arena of em- 
bittered strife, but in a conflict political and not 
military. Three of the five great actions in 
which he was personally present during the 
Revolution were fought on Jersey soil ; his 
next leadership was displayed in a contest 
waged in Philadelphia, but largely by Jersey- 



290 Princeton 

men or Princetonians. Princeton's place in 
American history can not be understood 
without consideration of the Constitutional 
Convention, where the passions of localism, 
separatism and sectional prejudice broke forth 
afresh. The assembly contained many wise 
and far-seeing men. Of its fifty-five members, 
thirty-two were men of academic training. 
There were one each from London, Oxford, 
Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and five had been 
connected with the checkered fortunes of 
William and Mary. The University of Penn- 
sylvania sent one, Columbia two. Harvard 
three, Yale four and Princeton nine. The 
most serious dissension, as is well known, was 
concerning the relative importance of large and 
small States in les^islation. The Vira^inia, or 
large-States plan, was for two houses, basing 
representation in both on population. It w^as 
essentially the work of James Madison, a pupil 
of Witherspoon. The Jersey, or small-State, 
plan was for one house, wherein each State 
should have equal representation. It was the 
cherished idea of Paterson, another Prince- 
tonian. Over these two schemes the battle 
waged fiercely until it seemed that even Wash- 
ington, the presiding officer, could not com- 



Princeton 291 

mand peace or force a compromise, and that 
the convention was on the verae of dissolution. 
Connecticut had ever been accustomed to two 
houses — one representing the people, one the 
towns. It was the compromise suggested on 
this analogy by Sherman and Ellsworth, and 
urged by them, with the assistance of Davie 
from Georgia, which finally prevailed. Ells- 
worth and Davie were both Princetonians. 
Madison joined hands with Washington in the 
successful struggle for the acceptance of the 
new Constitution in \'irginia — both Ellsworth 
and Paterson, their end attained, became the 
most ardent Federalists. 

The history of Princeton during this century 
has of course not been so dramatic as it was in 
the last, but the town and neighborhood have 
secured the permanent influence foreshadowed 
by its Revolutionary record. They shared in 
the control of State and nation, they gave 
their sons freely to the service of the country 
in each of the three wars since fought. But of 
course the story of Princeton is, in the main, 
the story of the University. Reopening its 
doors under Witherspoon with about forty 
students, its graduating class as early as 1806. 
numbered fifty-four, and thence to the out- 



292 Princeton 

break of the Civil War it enjoyed almost un- 
broken prosperit}- under four presidents, Samuel 
Stanhope Smith, Ashbel Green, James Carna- 
han and John Maclean. The first care of its 
friends was to provide for thorough training 
in science, so that it has the honor of having 
had the first American professor of chemistr)-. 
For a time it likewise had a professor of 
theolog}' ; but the founding of the Theological 
Seminar)' in 181 2 and its permanent location 
in Princeton the following year committed 
that branch of learning to an institution which 
has since become one of the most important 
in the countr)'. From time to time new build- 
ings were added to both College and Seminar)' 
as necessit)' required How stem the college 
discipline was is shown by the fact that at 
inter\'als, fortunately rare, students were sent 
to their homes in numbers scarcely credible 
in this quieter age ; on one occasion a hundred 
and twenty-five out of something over two 
hundred In 1824 Lafayette graciously ac- 
cepted the degree of Bachelor of Laws from 
the authorities while passing from New York 
to Washington. In 1832 Joseph Henr)' was 
made professor of natural philosophy, a chair 
he held with the highest distinction, for it was 




PRESIDENT JAMES NkCOSH. 



2Q3 



294 Princeton 

in his Princeton laboratory that he made his 
epochal discoveries in electricity, stepping- 
stones to the revolution of the world by its 
use ; in 1848 he was made director of the 
Smithsonian Institute. In 1846 was organized 
a Law School ; its three professors were men of 
the highest distinction, but the project was 
premature. In 1855 flames destroyed all but 
the walls of Nassau Hall, whereupon it was 
speedily remodelled as it still stands ; the 
variation, slight as it was from the original, 
appears to have been in the interest of economy 
rather than beauty. 

The only serious check in Princeton's pros- 
perity was caused by the Civil War. Though 
a large proportion of the students had always 
come from the Southern States, the rest were 
enthusiastic in their Northern sympathies, and 
the national flag was hoisted by them over 
Nassau Hall in April, 1861. The minority 
tore it down, but it was promptly restored to 
its place by a gallant citizen of the town, who 
in climbing to the apex of the cupola twisted 
the shaft of the weather-vane and fixed the 
arrow with its head to the north. Thus it 
remained until conciliation was complete a 
few years since (1896), when the pivot was 



Princeton 295 

repaired so that the historic index may point 
in all directions at the will of the winds. The 
withdrawal of the Southern students left the 
numbers of the ever-loyal University at a low 
ebb, and it was not until after the accession of 
James McCosh to the presidency that the 
new clientage which has so munificently sup- 
ported him and his successor was secured. It 
is also gratifying to note that the sons of the 
old Princeton Confederates are returning in 
ever greater numbers. The presidencies of 
Dr. McCosh and Dr. Patton are too near to 
belong to history. The evidences of the enor- 
mous strides made in material equipment are 
on every hand : splendid and beautiful build- 
ings, professors of distinction in great numbers, 
and a body of students numbering, along with 
those of the Seminary, about fifteen hundred. 
Near by is the famous Lawrenceville School, 
itself an epochal institution in the history of 
our secondary training. Wherever men con- 
verse of science, literature or art, the names 
of Princeton's sons must be considered ; but 
her chiefest glory thus far has been in her 
contributions to political and educational life. 
Representative of a definite theory and prac- 
tice in her sphere, she breeds men in al)un- 



296 Princeton 

dance to uphold her banner in the face of all 
assaults. 

Time, place and the men — these are the 
factors of history ; the first and the last vanish, 
the scenes alone remain. If history is to be 
made real, if we are to know in the concrete, 
from the experience of the men and women 
who have left the stage, what alone is possible 
for ourselves and our race, we do well to see 
and ponder the places which knew those who 
have gone before. Princeton possesses, in 
Nassau Hall, a focus of patriotism — a cradle of 
liberty. In her battle-field, the spot where cul- 
>**ik* *^ minated one of the vrc^t- 

li^'^j^\ est campaigns of one of 
"'vii%, the gr^^atest of generals ; 

/♦,J the triumph of the moral 
''/.// forc/:s which combine in 




,^ . . 7^ true gr^:atness. The les- 
'i V -y , r'^^^ s^'^n to be lf:arned from 
Vrincjitfm\ historic «c^rn^:^ should be that intel- 
lect and not numlx:rs controls the world ; that 
■ - ' not fore/: ov*^:rmast/:r bigness ; that 

. right, %n\)itf)rV'A by strong purpose 
and high principl/;, prevail in the end. 







c 



FRANiaJN GAVE DtSTiNCTtOX 
\LCOTr vrajLiAJtv 

ITIES 

- "Ta\"s she -~ ~ ■ 



trie C-!l>in^ '_, ' .IxCj!* LlHt V <ir<r p*ii tu. 



sites :\ - :^.^^\^es as form the 

riv- ^ :sv me psisses and path\ra\^ on 



to Ti: he 

cities of Eur - «iiene they wtere 

twentv" centuries a^v\ i iie ci\~il stmcrare into 
which they nt has changed r -^ * ^ ^ " ^ .; ■ 

of what once wa>^ These : ^- 
in the general. They come to be seen in the 
particular. 

=97 



29'^ rhil.uk-lpliiii 

I'hil.idclpliia stands, and necessarily stands 
on Lhi: straight, rultn'dikc " I'^alls line" which 
passes throiiL^h every city site from New York 
to Mont^^onier)', hecaiise this prodii^ious slij) 
changes river navigation wherever it crosses a 
river valley. Where marine navigation stoj)- 
ped to-day and then, Penii put his cit)', its site 
a peninsula ahoul which two rivers joined, a 
rich alluvial plain, coNcrcd with ^huial clay, 
with schistose rocks croj)pin^; out across it, the 
paheozoic marble of the Atlantic coast hard 
by, and a strij) of i^reen serpentine crossing- 
the country from the hii^hest j)()ints in the 
future limits of the cit\' to Chester County, 
its first <j^ranar)' and fcnnlin^^ around. These 
things — the half-sunken Lower Delaware River 
spreading iuto I )(laware i^ay, the term of 
navigation at the junction ol two rivers, antl 
the abrupt approach to the sea of a formation 
elsewhere miles from the ocean — make Phila- 
delphia all it is iu outer look, a Hat city built 
of its own cla)', garnished with its own marble, 
a seaport knowing" the sea only in its rivers. 

In this inland port, as you float in either 
ri\c-r, seafaring- masts and main rit^oing", black 
aucl tarred, silhouette against the tender green 
of growing fields. Tlu- early houses were 




Z z 

O s 

I- '^ 

< o 

a: d 



300 Philadelphia 

brick of the orlacier's leaving-, matching- London 
in color ; for both are ground out of the same 
earth mill. Its early stone houses were of the 
narrow contorted gray schists, and marble quar- 
ries had been opened, exhausted and closed 
to trim the brick before the Revolution. 
Later these were varied by the green serpen- 
tine, a hideous, dull color, the red sandstone 
of the fertile inland plains, and at last, as rail- 
roads made it easy to seek a door-step i,ooo 
miles away, the marble of Vermont built 
the City Hall, the granites of Cape Ann the 
Post Office, and Ohio ashlar a growing num- 
ber of private homes, matching London once 
more as a close convener of the Portland stone 
Penn saw builded into St. Paul's. The outer 
resemblance to London noted by Matthew 
Arnold and many an one besides, rests, as such 
things do, on concrete fact. 

William Penn in 1682 came into no empty 
Western world. The Dutch and Swede had 
been entering these waters for near a century. 
They were charted, tracked and known. Un- 
easy frontier alarms were over. Farms dotted 
all the region. For the first time, in Foxs 
Journal, a decade before Penn, we catch the 
accent and atmosphere of the American settler 



Philadelphia 



;oi 



living lonely and safe. He was as yet neither 
of these in New England, New York or the 
Southern States. The Swedes had left their 
work in Swedes' Church, with its timber, roof 
and tower recalling North Europe, as its carved 
angels do the wood sculpture of the pine forest. 
There was a tavern, the Blue Anchor, possibly 
(not probably) still standing, waiting for Penn 
at the little boat harbor, now Dock Street. 
A thriving commerce of a ship a week was 
already busying the river with its boats. On 
the crest of the low hill that rose from this 
boat-haven, Penn planted the house which now 
stands in the Park. On this crest ran Market, 
and where the land began to dip to the Schuyl- 
kill, Broad Street crossed, the first streets to be 
run by the prospector and real-estate specula- 
tor, on a plan by whose geometrical extensions 
both are still guided, in these days of new 
boulevards in old cities the oldest and least 
changed of any city plan in civilized lands. 
On this background of growing farms and 
frequent vessels, Penn sketched the Common- 
wealth. He and his were fortunate in his 
bringings. He came from Central England, 
that central mark and beach line from which 
so large a portion of the worthier of the race 



302 Philadelphia 

spring. He drew his settlers in the north of 
the kingdom from the line of Fox's trips, 
whose Cumberland and Lancashire converts 
dotted the region about Philadelphia with 
names familiar in his Journal, Lancaster, 
Swarthmore, Merion, and Haverford. All 
South England had been stirred by Mon- 
mouth's Rebellion and the Revolution, the 
work of the South as the Commonwealth had 
its leader in the North. Philadelphia, there- 
fore, drew chiefly from Saxon, and less from 
Danish or Celtic England, than had New 
England. Its leaders came from the thrifty 
business classes of London, " city " people, in- 
stead of from the gentry as had Virginia's. 
Ten years later, Louis was harrying the Pala- 
tinate, and a German population, skilled in 
the mechanic arts, came and gave Philadelphia 
its manufacturing foundation. Penn was pie- 
tistic, his mother was from Holland, and this 
gave him continental acquaintance and sym- 
pathy with continental dissent, which later 
brought the Moravians and gave the colony 
relations with Central Europe, an early and 
prolific press, and patience with political op- 
pression, a dubious virtue still surviving. 

The town erew like a weed and as rank. 




THOMAS PENN. 

FROM A PAINTING OWNED BY THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, AND COPIED BY 

M. I. NAYLOR FROM THE PORTRAIT IN POSSESSION OF MAJOR DUGALD STUART. 



303 



304 Philadelphia 

Grain was cheap, thanks to the limestone plain 
just beyond the low primitive rocks. Trade 
flowed in from the West Indies and Europe. 
In thirty years the place was bigger than any in 
the provinces. The Proprietor's square house 
set the fashion, built from imported brick. 
Farmsteads on the road out to the German 
town of the new immigrants were built of the 
gray schists of the region. Ship-building be- 
gan. Pirates lurked in the river below. The 
Proprietor's official residence, now gone, fronted 
on the fouling pool where boats came, and 
matched the English country-house of South 
England. A little State House, which closely 
resembled in outer look the market-house of 
the same period on Second Street to the south, 
was built on Market Street, near the open ris- 
ing ground on which Letitia Penn's dwelling 
stood. Merchants' homes were on its low hill ; 
some of those still there are probably of this 
period when of imported brick. There is a 
row of houses on Swanson Street recalling the 
mechanics' homes. In green quiet still held, 
the Friends' meeting-house was erected — the 
present building far later. Low houses and 
warehouses clustered about what is now Dock 
Street — probably not one left. The swarm of 



3o6 Philadelphia 

some two thousand houses stretched aloni^ the 
river for what is now a square or two. Be- 
yond were a few fields. Dense forests stood 
to the Schuylkill, and crowned all the little 
hills about, save that Fairmount stood hare, 
as is indeed the fashion of the sterile, rocky 
height. Schools were opened, of which one 
survives in the " Penn charter" school on 
Twelfth and Market. The city began its char- 
tered existence, and the portraits of its first 
mayors, whose descendants are still part of the 
active life of the city, recall those of Guildhall, 
not as with like New England iconography, 
the Puritan remonstrants of James and Charles. 
An almanac was issued from the press of Brad- 
ford, whose solitary copy in the Historical 
Society begins printing for the State. A poly- 
glot literature was in progress, apparent in 
more than one collection. The long, low, 
brick-built town left its image in 1720 in the 
picture in the entrance of the Philadelphia 
Library. Market stalls filled the river end of 
the street to which they gave a name, and 
these the civic organization, the peak-towered 
State House, the courts, the brick houses, the 
Proprietor's residence, the city ordinances, the 
entire machinery of life, followed and imitated 



Philadelphia 



)07 



as closely as might be, on the edge of the 
wilderness, the market borough of an English 
shire. The town had had its first big boom 
and was near wallowincr in its first reaction, — 
houses empty, more money in demand, debts 




FRANKLIN IN 1777. 

AFTER THE PRINT REPRODUCED FROM THE DRAWING OF COHIN. 

oppressive, and all hope gone, when (1723) 
the great genius, Benjamin Franklin, who was 
to be its second founder and save it from 
Friend and Precisian, Palatinate Dutch, Ger- 
man, and Pietist, walked up Market Street 



3o8 Philadelphia 

and turned down Fourth in early morning-. 
He was to give Philadelphia its better civiliza- 
tion. For near seventy years, he was to be, so 
far as the civilized world was concerned, the 
city and all in it worth knowing. By supreme 
good fortune all his past, or at least as much 
as it is desirable to know, is laid bare to 
the visitor. The houses in which he is said 
to have had his lodging as apprentice — old 
enough for this, at least — look down from 
Lodge Street on Dock Square. His old 
home on Market, between Third and Fourth, 
is long since gone, but it stood back from the 
street and was doubtless of the type of the 
roomy old houses now on Third south of Wal- 
nut, or the house of Hamilton in Woodlawn 
Cemetery. The letter-books of Franklin, with 
his correspondence for over twenty years, are at 
the American Philosophical Society which he 
founded, which first commemorated his death, 
and, a century later, the centenary of his obse- 
quies. The best of his portraits is there, 
Houdon's bust of the old man, and the roomy- 
seated chair of " Dr. Heavysides." His ciress 
buckles are in the Historical Society, and the 
teacups over which he bowed his compliments, 
and some speeches which Madame Helvetius 




1 1 

I- is 



3IO Philadelphia 

rightly held more dearer than compliments, 
frowsy as Mrs. Adams found her. There, too, 
is the dubious portrait, which, whether it is 
Franklin in his youth or no, looks the youth 
of his male descendants. Part of his electric 
machine, and his printing-press are in the 
Franklin Institute, part in the Philadelphia Li- 
brary, which he also founded, and a Leyden jar, 
perhaps of the great experiment, at the Ameri- 
can Philosophical Society. The fire-bucket 
of his company, and the sword he wore in his 
brief but not inglorious military service, are 
in the Historical Society. One probable site 
of the field in which he flew his kite is filled by 
the present Record building. His statue is on 
the front of the library at Juniper and Locust ; 
another — worthy — is to the right on Chestnut 
Street, looking on the How of men and women 
in the city life he loved, for in the country 
he never willingly spent a day. Not a stage 
of his life; but can still be followed by the 
historical pilgrim in Philadelphia. He can 
follow in Pranklin's steps, — the steep slope 
up which he walked to enter — with old land- 
ing-stairs still in place south of Market — the 
Fourth Street corner, the site of his job office, 
the purlieus of Dock Street, from whence came 



Philadelphia 311 

the mire that never quite left his garments, 
the lots of the Market Street home where his 
better years were passed, his pew at Christ's 
Church, the State House he entered for a half- 
century in so many capacities — King's officer, 
contractor, colonial legislator, rebellious con- 
Sfressman, sio-ner of the Declaration and Con- 
stitution, — his eye through all the years on the 
gilded sun one can yet trace on the back of 
the President's chair — and last, when his own 
sun was at its setting, as member of the Con- 
stitutional Convention of his own State, and 
his modest orave at Fifth and Arch, where 
one may still uncover at the last memor}- of 
the most human of all Americans. Most of 
us, least of other lands, prefiguring in life, 
work, and character our invincible patience, 
our good humor, our quenchless curiosity, our 
careless disorder in trifles, our easy success in 
serious affairs, our sluttish phrase, our high 
spirit, the even equality of our manners, 
our perpetual relish for the simple environ- 
ment and the homelier joys of our life, our 
neglect of means and detail, our persever- 
ance and achievement in the final end, our 
self-consciousness and our easy conviction 
that neither fate itself, nor our own careless 



312 Philadelphia 

disregard of a less wise past, can rob us of our 
appointed place in the advancing files of time. 
Franklin's busy march through these streets 
bridged two great periods. His half-century 
before the Revolution, fifty-two years from his 
landing to Lexington, was a season of pro- 
digious material expansion whose signs are all 
about the city. Then were built those pleas- 
ant places in the Park, and homes like that of 
John Penn's in the Zoological Garden, ending 
in the privateer's house which was later to be 
Arnold's headquarters, to-day Mt. Pleasant. 
John Bartram built his stone house, set up its 
pillars and laid out his Botanical Garden, both 
happily standing and city property, his cypress 
alone dead, — slow failing through the years in 
which one lover has each spring sought it, — 
but much of his sylvan wealth remains, still a 
record of his science and of the economic con- 
ditions which gave him means for his long and 
costly trips. For when there were neither 
roads nor railroads the "distance-rent" of 
farm land near a city was enormous. The 
farm hard by swept in all the profit of days of 
teaming of which the railroad has long since 
robbed it and diffused it over a wide area, 
levelling up, as is our American way. The 




CARPENTERS' HALL, PHILADELPHIA. 

WHEREIN MET THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, 1774. 



313 



314 Philadelphia 

home, the life, the leisure, the acquaintance 
and the society possible 1 50 years ago to a 
man who farmed suburban acres are all at- 
tested when you stand in Bartram's garden by 
the river on the gray rock of the only rock 
wine-press this side of the Atlantic, and re- 
member that on this curving path Washing- 
ton, Franklin, Hancock, Rittenhouse, Morris, 
and Kalm, and a score more of the century's 
great, supped in the cool, open evening with a 
host whom the first two found at a sudden 
coming bare-headed, barefooted and plowing. 
The Revolutionary houses of the environs tell 
of the farm-profits of this period ; so do the 
" clasped hands " and the " green tree " on the 
fronts of the olden homes — few or none dating 
back of the Revolution — which record the or- 
ganization of rival insurance companies ; the 
earliest building of the Pennsylvania Hospital 
on Pine with quaint old-world aspect, the little 
strip of wall at Tenth and Spruce, once part of 
the almshouse which Longfellow blended with 
the hospital in Evangeline ; Carpenters' Hall, 
the only Guild house in the colonies ; the bit 
of wall still standing of the brewery at Fifth 
and Wharton ; of the first play-house in the city 
and, most important of all, the two chief colo- 




o; = 

o - 

— s 

< > 



^ < 



3'^ riiil;i(l(:lj>hi.'i 

iii.il iii')iiuiii<:Ml'> i)\ llx- ( ily, (JlirisL LhiinJi iiiid 
I ii'l< |«iulencc I I. ill. 

I li< •,(• l)iiil<liiios mark iinn Ii. Ilic (ily frnm 
a mere " 1' ront " Si x < I mi Lhc rivcj-, and two \n> 
hill'] it, harl |.^rown u)) Lo Seveiuh and l^i^iuh 
III .1 li.ill <lli|jst- which ran in thriving honK-s 
linin Ivensing^ton, j^re.w thronged .ihoui < lu^st- 
nut, now passing Market in ili<- race, — so that 
Market ^nd Arrh have the oldest honse-fronts 
to-day, — and iIkii lhinne<l out a;jain towards 
the scene ol ili< Mi>( lii<ii/a. In iliis area are 
SCatIf Tfd (III- ni.ilr>loir> nl llic ( oluiii.il .iiid ini- 
me'diate post K«-volutionary |)< riml, wilh Mrs, 
koss's house on Anh Sirei i .!■, iy|"' ol the 
nil ( liani< 's dwelling oj ili<- day, li.ippily pre- 
served and now l>oii;jlil a. a niiinoiial ol llic 
Ha^ first ma<le tlx^re. li(^yond iln-m begins 
iIm- mod<lll ril \' of this ceiiliiiy, of marhine- 
jii.id' IiihI, It! IiiiiiIhi '..iwid l»y 'af.iiii, and 
house plans liihd lu iln- ;^rowin^" valii< of 
the city lot. The growl li wliii h llnis exjjanded 
the eity of Pmii inin iln iil\ ol I'laiiklln 
was no ni<'i(- a<iiihnii nl |iit|)iil,iiiMii. Ii 
caiiK' <i| .1 jiMilil.iMi li.iilc, nl .1 'Ji.nc III ad- 
viMiliires hy sea and land, iiol always hj^al, and 
always dangerous, and nl .i (lose c(jnii<(iioii 
lietween th<- mere haul', ol ihr- (ily anti iho.u; 



Philadelphia 317 

of London, from which the ancestors of more 
than one Philadelphia Friend were drawn, for 
Penn had borne his testimony in the Grace 
Church and Wheeler Street meeting-houses in 
London. When the richer men of the city 
■came to erect its chief church, it was Gibbs's 
St. Martin in the Fields which suggested the 
interior of the building on Second Street, and 
it was London brick architecture which was 
followed in Independence Hall and its open 
arches, — now restored, — despoiling the record 
of recent history to decorate and sometimes 
disfigure an earlier period, as is the manner 
and method of restoration the world over. 
These buildings in their size, their grace, their 
Georgian flavor, their cost, — for both were ex- 
travagant as times then went, — stood for an 
opulent mercantile connection between the 
metropolis of colonial and of royal England, a 
connection never quite lost, as the resemblance 
of the younger city to the older has never 
quite vanished. New York suggests Paris in 
spots, but no Philadelphian in his wildest Bight 
ever thought that Philadelphia did. 

When the Revolution came, Philadelphia 
sacrificed its English trade as promptly as 
ninetv vears later the city, loyal to its prm- 



3i8 Philadelphia 

ciples, sacrificed its Southern trade, and in 
both times and both sacrifices New York 
lagged to the rear in action and came to the 
front in assertion. Independence Hall still 
looked out on green fields to the west, and 
Rittenhouse's little observatory — earliest of 
American star-gazing spots, whose telescope, 
earliest of our astronomical instruments, is in 
the American Philosophical Society — still 
stood in the square where Howe's artillery was 
to be parked. The jail of " Hugh Wynne " 
was on the southeast corner of Sixth and 
Chestnut, on whose site Binney's home was 
to stand later, the hero of another struofo-le for 
freedom. In the northeast corner of Wash- 
ington Square was the potter's field, last 
opened a century ago for yellow-fever victims. 
The house, Dutch built, and hence close to the 
street edge, in which Jefferson was to write 
the draft of the Declaration, preserved by 
the American Philosophical Society, was on 
Seventh and Market, its commemoration tab- 
let on the wrong lot. A tavern fronted the 
Hall, and its stables ran opposite to the main 
door, its flies worrying the Continental Con- 
gress on a hot historic afternoon. The sharp 
rise which still ascends between Callowhill and 



320 Philadelphia 

Spring Garden was crested by the British 
works, of which the first was at Second and 
Poplar. From the Market Street Bridge it is 
still possible to make out the hill on which 
Hamilton planted his field-pieces to engage 
the British tetc-du-poiit, held by the 72d High- 
landers. The Hessians camped in the open 
space at Gray's Ferry, as the bridge of many 
years is still called. The stately house which 
held the Mischienza has disappeared only 
within a few years. The houses on the main 
street of Germantown still bear the mark of 
the battle, and look unchanged on the street 
whose fogs still veil it as on the day of confiict. 
The city now had from the river the sky-line 
which it substantially retained up to twenty 
years ago, when the steeples and the towers 
the Revolutionary period knew were dwarfed 
by the many-storied steel frames of to-day. 

The returning tide of prosperity after the 
Revolution has left one mark in the Morris 
dwelling on the south side of Eighth, between 
Locust and Walnut, type of the wealthy 
home of the day. The biggest of the period 
was Robert Morris's, on the site of the Press 
Building, left as his "folly." The peak-roofed 
house in roomy squares now gave way for 



Philadelphia 



;2i 



thirty years to the house built flush to the 
street, which in the generation between 1790 







THE MORRIS HOUSE, QERMANTOWN, PHILADELPHIA. 

and 1820 spread the growing city up to Tenth 
Street or so, and of which many are left. 
With this growth dwellings pushed beyond 
South on one side and beyond Vine on the 



32 2 Philadelphia 

other, the fringe of the city limits becoming 
an Alsatia still apparent, mechanics' homes 
crowding just beyond as they still do, until 
met north and even south by more pretentious 
dwellings. In this thirty years the city grew 
from 42,000 to 108,000, and it faced first the 
jjroblem to which only the American and 
Australian city has provcMJ fully e(jual in all 
the round of semitropical summers north or 
south of the equator. The city, as it inherited 
from England its city government, had also 
inherited from there its well-water supply, its 
surface drainage, its slovenly streets, its prac- 
tice of crowding the homes of the poor on 
back lots, so as to fill the area on which they 
stood with unsavory wynds, antl its habit of 
intramural int(::rincnt and inlraniural slaughter- 
iiouses, all which, (tvcn the i^atin cities of two 
thousand years ago, taught l>y hott(;r summers, 
had (nitgrown. In the; t(;pid temperature and 
light but even rain-fall in luigland these 
vvork(.'d few ills until the middle of this cttn- 
tury. Under our torrid summer, our tropical 
rain-fall, and our swift changes, all these things 
meant disease and death, and the unconscious 
|>rol)l( in which fa(<'d lh(t city a century ago 
aiul left its mark on the map was rcx'ordcd in 



Philadelphia 323 

yellow fever, born of water-supply and filth 
together with overcrowding, and all the evils 
of bad water and overcrowding. 

Water-works were at last built, the most 
considerable then known, their site where the 
Public Buildings stand and their picture in 
the Historical Society ; a systematic street 
scavenging began, building on the back of 
lots was prohibited, years before New York, 
and two generations before the European city ; 
a fixed yardage, small, but sufficient to trans- 
form the city map, was required of each dwell- 
ing ; paving and sewerage commenced, the 
almshouse was moved, a city hospital was es- 
tablished, and a most important legal decision 
made easy the purchase of house lots by the 
poor and frugal. The solution was not com- 
plete. Typhoid lurks where yellow fever once 
raged, but crowding was prevented and the 
city has no slums in the region outside of the 
area which has been built over since the ordi- 
nances of the first twenty to thirty years of 
this century stopped overcrowding and saved 
its poorer citizens from the awful fate inflicted 
by the titled avarice and civic mislegislation of 
London and Glasgow. Nor ought any one to 
look across the Schuvlkill from the Zoological 



\^'\ 



riui.uL-ipiiLi 



(i.iiiK'U .It thr K>\rl\ .iMil ul.iti'vl vM\ni|» wh'uli 
housi's [\\i- l.uiinoiini W aui works wiihiuK a 
tluill t>l (MuK- that tills w a-, the iH'i^iniuui; ot 
llu- pii>l>Uin <'t jMr-.TiAiUv; hi-alth iii ht'at awA 
rain, \\hul\ -anvr thrwiMKl l>ri.\in hail n\^-ai>t 
|u-'.t iK'Ui I' tk> thr i it\ 111 hkr v huirs. As is iht' 
Atma uan hatut, tht> suppK' 
hu>krvl til -a ti> quaniit \ , aiul 
latt'i ti> i|uaht\ ; auvl as is 
al-.o thr Aiucairan hahit. 
lu't h w ill br st\ uu\l u\ t hc> 



^w 



sr' 




k lul. So thr ku\;r pio\ isiou 
Um thr ahiishoust^ ot so\ ia\t\' 
OK wiiiiAM ptppER. yrais aj;o hvis v;i\ca\ the 
space tor iht> I'liivrrsily anil its huiUliii^s, its 
coijnatr institiitiiMis, hospitals an^l iwusouius. 
tvlkoil V ollrrt i\ rl\ , our i»t thr most lihrial 
giants n\ailr l>\ aiw iwovlrrn rity to thr woik 
i>l hiv'.hn rJiualion not under itvS own coiUi\>l, 
a i;iant whivh o\\v\l it-, initiative and early suc- 
cess to Pi. William Trppn, whi>st> statue ovtM"- 
Ku>ks thr sitr hr srcuird to IrainiUi; sind to 
science. There thr I'mversity luis v;ro\\n. 
coverevl its site with a score oi IniiKhuv^s, 
avKUnl department to department, vlvmMc\l 
its sludrnts m a vlri\ulr, rrcri\t'd lUvne m 
^itts unvlri Its pirsrnt Tu^Nost, Mr. i. hailrs 



Philadelphia 325 

C. Harrison, than had conic to it in all 
the century and a half of its history, knit 
the community to it and given it intel- 
lectual leadership by a j^roup of affiliated 
societies, linked itself to the public schools 
by municipal scholarships supported by the 
city, opened courses for teachers, spread 
its lectures over the State and in all ways 
made itself not only an institution of learn, 
ing- for students, but of teaching for the 
community. 

The development of civic institutions in the 
first quarter of the century was accompanied 
by the founding, each to-day housed in con- 
spicuous recent edifices of the past decade, of 
State-aided institutions for the Deaf and Oumb, 
1820, for the Blind, 1833, and the House of 
Refuge, 1828. This philanthropic impulse 
came, as such generall)' does, as part of a 
rapid material development whicli. in a score 
of years ending with the commercial crash of 
1837-39, had laid the foundations of the manu- 
facturing activity and the internal commerce 
of Philadelphia, It was in this period that 
the Music Funtl Hall (^i824\ I'^ighth above 
South, was built. The Exchange, 1832, the 
most pretentious building of its tla\'. was 




326 Philadelphia 

erected near the close of the period, and the 
pillared row, following a London model, was 
built on Spruce between Ninth and Tenth, the 
largest and most costly private dwellings of its 
day. The next Colonnade row, nearly twenty 
years later, occupied the site, and gave the 
name to the Colonnade Ho- 
tel, Fifteenth and Chestnut. 
St. Mark's and St. Luke's 
stood for opposite extremes 
of the church edifices of the 
forties. The taste of the 
Federalists and Whigs of 
the day filled the city with 
the pseudo-classic, from which Europe was just 
departing — the United States bank, now the 
Custom-house, the Mint, the building in which 
Girard had his bank, back of the Exchange, 
and lastly Girard College, not easily forgot, 
however unfit for its purpose, if once seen 
from St. George's hill on its airy height. The 
ship-building firm of Cramps was established 
1830, and Baldwin's Locomotive Works 1837, 
both products of the same period of activity. 
Ten years later began the Pennsylvania rail- 
road comparable to a kingdom in revenue 
power and the ability of chiefs like Frank 



FRANK IHOMSON. 



Philadelphia 327 

Thomson. The city flowed across Broad 
Street, and solid blocks pushed their way in 
brick and white marble, turning later to New 
York's brown-stone, up each flank of the city 
on Pine and on Arch, spreading out in an area 
beyond Broad Street, which the crash of credit, 
and the failure of the State for a season to pay 
the interest on its bonds, left tenantless, often 
roofless, covered with mortgages and the pre- 
diction, heard first under Governor Keith, 
1725, repeated within this decade, that the city 
would never need the houses which a boom 
had erected. 

The city of the period before the war had 
now been built and the suburbs had grown 
close to the consolidation of 1854. Railroad 
access had created, across the Schuylkill, the 
village of Mantua, which was to become West 
Philadelphia as it extended southward and 
was reached by new bridges and street-car 
lines. To the north, just beyond the old 
British redoubts, factory owners, managers 
and foremen, mechanics and operatives, with 
the retailers they required, had built their 
homes on the higher ground, north of the 
great industries growing on the low and lightly 
taxed land, easily accessible by railroads from 



32S Philadelphia 

the coal-fields, beyond the old city limits at 
Vine, and extending to Callowhill and beyond. 
This created the cit}' of Spring Garden. The 
river settlements, the Northern Liberties, Ken- 
sington, Richmond, grew under the triple in- 
fluence of manufacturers and cheap coal, out 
of the villages whose farm-houses, taverns and 
mechanics' dwellinQ^s of the earlv vears of the 
centur\- still dot the raw newer dwellino-s of 
the past fort)' years. Like settlements had 
grown in Southwark and Manayunk. The 
gaps and sutures still remain to mark the old 
divisions. The squalid stretches of South 
Street from river to river, for nearly a century 
the resort of cheap stores which sought city 
trade, and avoided citv taxes. The like rag^o^ed 
selvedge along Mne, influenced, too, along 
much of the line by low, open ground. The 
gap fringing both banks of the Schuylkill, mark- 
ing days when the railroad and the Market 
Street bridge made the more distant uprise of 
Fortieth Street more accessible than the lower 
region nearer. The bare and vacant patches 
about Germantown Junction, over which the 
old village has never quite grown down to meet 
the approaching city, where for various rea- 
sons of grade, access was not easy, and where 



Philadelphia 329 

institutions like Girard College and the Peni- 
tentiary, with a cemetery or two, like rocks in 
a moving stream, have stopped and divided 
the glacier-like spread of the city. These 
things have made Philadelphia, like London, a 
city of accretions from divers centres, and 
not, like Paris or New York, a steady, sym- 
metrical and continuous growth from one 
organic centre. 

The war found a city which, united, had 
more than the area of London (Philadelphia, 
82,807 acres ; London, 74,692), and at almost 
every stage of the growth of the two a quarter 
of the population of the vaster metropolis. 
Since room is the chief factor in civic comfort, 
there has never been a year in which the 
average man has not been just about four 
times as comfortable in Philadelphia as in 
London, and he has always had higher wages 
by a quarter to a half, paid less for food and 
lodgings, and paid more for clothing, light and 
coal. He has lived here, a family to a house, 
where a quarter of London has been a family 
to two rooms. Most of all, for twenty years 
past has this growth of the small houses of 
labor gone on, their number swelling faster 
than the tale of families seeking them. These 



330 Philadelphia 

conditions, secured by a wise civic policy early 
in the century, had reached the full devel- 
opment, which they have since maintained, 
at the opening of the war. Inexpressibly 
dull was the extension the city now made, 
the dreary reaches of homes, which oppress 
the stranger west of Eleventh Street, and 
appear in unvarying blocks on the North and 
South Streets, the building operations of the 
'40s and '50s, in whose even rows were the last, 
worst expression of the dull, utilitarian spirit 
of the pre-war, pre-centennial period. Napo- 
leon LeBrun built the Cathedral and the 
Academy of Music, a brick shell holding a 
shapely and grandiose interior, and Walton and 
McArthur added to the pseudo-classic. When 
the Jayne Block went up on Chestnut, east of 
Third, it was believed to be the largest single 
business building yet erected on the continent. 
The Girard, 1852, was one of its largest hotels, 
and echoed the Italian i)alace front which 
Barry had taught London in his Reform Club. 
The development in manufactures after the 
war, railroad expansion and the somewhat de- 
ceptive prosperity of the Centennial gave the 
city the same sudden burst which Chicago had 
in 1893, and Philadelphia took on the aspect 



rhii.uioiphi.i 



\\\ ll\r iu-\t t\\rni\' \ r.us, iS^o to iSo(>. which 
the iMo.it ril\ will .ilw .i\ s hoKl. t^'luMp tro lights 
lUMUovl in MOW l>iuKhn>;-stonos. atul l\\c cAsWy 
wovkvd ^roon sorpontino w.is usoil in tlu> I'ni- 
vorsitN' iMiiKlini^s an^l tho A^mvUmiiv ot \atnral 
Soionvo on 1 Oi\in Sqnaro 1 1 w as iMuplox tnl in 
tho Ai'.ulonu i>t lini- Aits, loss .ii;rtH\ihlo than 
tho o.ulior tiont ot tho sanu> institntion, now a 
thoatio on C'ho^tnnt. Tho ai\-hitO(,-t nial in\- 
pnlso Inst toll at l\\c (."ontonnial hroko up tho 
tra^htions v>t a inMiturx, aiul IniiKlin^ ol tho last 
twtM\i\ ti\o \oars. i>tton <^/i^«//7>\ alwaNs shows, 
iw iMi m tho hun\Most row. intont. Ji^siv^n an*.! 
roi-o>.M\it ion, ho\vo\c"r unoonth. ot tho just I'laiiu 
ol ilov-oi.it ion. 

V\\c st^oiuv; o\ i> .iiul lo\ iiiv; r.m still tr.iv'o all 
tlu'so (.'h.mv^os ol .1 lontiuA. Tho \ia\ ktaiu^l 
o{ tho vit\, .iiul its warohousc>s about 1 Vnk 
.'^qu.in\ .iiul tho ri\ iM' troni. tho i^xpaivsion bo- 
toro tho Ko\v>lution, tho p.iuso just atttM", tht* 
i^rowth in tho poriovl .ittor i ;'S7. tho avKli- 
tion oarly ii\ llu> iHM\tur\ aiul thc^ i;>'^'«it j:;rowth 
hotoro .lUvl altor tho w.u .iiul tor twtM\t\ \oars 
p.i'>t. l'\u~h h.is its i-h.ii.utoi .iiivl qu.ilitw Its 
mossai^i' anil pnipoit, .in^l thosi> .is tht^\ o\- 
touvloil h.i\o mot .1 >Mowth .is (.listinot .iiul 
rorooni. .ihlo, iu>iih, wost .lUvl south. \\\c 



Philadelphia 



000 



marks of these things and their metes and 
bounds, the current and course of population, 
the monuments of the past, the changing fash- 
ion of each decade and the desire of the 
present, these are all written in this moving 
tide of houses which has flooded all the wood- 
grown fields of two centuries ago. Genera- 
tion by generation has seen a wider comfort, 
a higher level of life, an improving education 
and more abundant resource for the Many for 
whom this city has always existed. Dull, sor- 
did, narrow, much of this life has been. From 
its dawn, it has had its seasons of stagnant 
corruption, and Penn but wrote the despair of 
all who have served it since, 
yet no man has labored and 
lived in it but has come to 
know its charm, to feel its 
life, to trust to the sure tides 
of its being, welling always 
towards a more complete 
comfort, and to love this vast amorphous city 
which broods over its children with a perpetual 
home nurture. 




:^'>i '^'^ 



WILMINGTON 

" Her mingled streams of Swedish, Dutch and English 
blood." 



By E. N. VALLANDIGHAM 

WHEN the adventurous William Usselinx, 
native of Antwerp and merchant of 
Stockholm, was growing old, he proposed to 
King Gustavus Adolphus that Sweden organ- 
ize a trading company to operate in Asia, 
Africa, America, and Terra IMagellanica. The 
Kinor lent ear to Usselinx, and Usselinx was 
able to picture to the Swedish people the 
beauty and fertility of the region bordering on 
the Delaware, "a fine land, in which all the 
necessaries and comforts of life are to be en- 
joyed in overflowing abundance." The pro- 
posed plans sped well for a time ; the King 
pledged a great sum from the royal treasure- 
in aid of the new company, and the Swedish 
people, nobles and commons, subscribed to the 



33^ Wilmington 

stock. But the King was shortly to be busied 
in the wars of Germany, and when he died at 
his great victory of Liatzen, the plans of Usse- 
liux were yet unexecuted. One biographer of 
Gustavus, indeed, says that the little fleet in- 
tended for America was seized by the Span- 
iards, but it is by no means certain that such 
a fleet ever set sail. 

Queen Christina, the daughter of Gustavus, 
permitted her able chancellor, Oxenstiern, to 
revive the charter of Usselinx, and Oxenstiern 
employed to take out a Swedish colony to the 
Delaware probably the fittest man in all the 
world for that task, Peter Minuet, sometime 
Governor of New Netherlands, driven from 
his post by the jealous factors that they 
might put in his place the more pliant Walter 
Van Twiller, surnamed the Doubter. The 
exact date of Minuet's expedition is unknown, 
but Kieft, who succeeded Van Twiller in the 
Governorship of New Netherlands, made pro- 
test in May, 1638, against the presence upon 
the Delaware of Peter Minuet, " who stylest 
thyself commander in the service of her 
Majesty the Queen of Sweden." Kieft warned 
Peter " that the whole South River [the Dela- 
ware] of the New Netherlands, both the upper 



Wilmington ^^ZJ 

and the lower, has been our property for many 
years, occupied by our forts, and sealed by our 
blood." 

When K left's protest reached the newly 
arrived Swedes, they were already in snug 
quarters on the edge of the River Minquas, as 
the Indians called it, or Christina, as the new- 
comers named it (set down on modern maps 
as Christiana, but in the mouths of those that 
navigate its waters, called Christeen) ; for they 
had sailed up the Delaware in the Bird Grip, 
or Griffin, and the Key of Calmar, and en- 
tering the Minquas, had come to anchor in 
deep water close against a natural wharf of 
rock, well within the present limits of Wilming- 
ton. Thus was made the true becrinninor of the 
city, though no part of the region it now oc- 
cupies bore the name of Wilmington until a 
full century later. 

The newcomers built close to their origfinal 
place of anchorage a little fort, and behind it 
a little village. Hudde, the Dutch comman- 
der at Fort Nassau, thirty miles up the Dela- 
ware, describing the Swedish fortification 
seven years later, says that it was " nearly en- 
circled by a marsh, except on the northwest 
side, where it can be approached by land." 



33S 



W Tlmfngi ron 



only pisce of -^^^r?! 



m TTf rT7»=- 



t-fr»=- r-n-r — ■,=^-^r;cir, 



i.cr'srsrd. tfie 
i^re region. 



1± CO-'jCLV 




die Rev ? . -- - 
n-^^TT of i_ai:rnzea 



Wilmington 339 

church and state were planted together. Pas- 
tor Campanius, who came five years after 
Torkillius, found that beside Fort Christina 
had sprung up the village of Christina Har- 
bor, or Christinaham, and Engineer Lind- 
strom. who came when the settlement was 
not yet twenty years old, has left us a map of 
this earliest Wilmington. 

Before the Dutch had time to call the Swe- 
dish intruders to a reckoning Minuet died, 
and John Prinz was sent out as Governor. 
There had been the short intervening reign of 
Peter Hollendare. Prinz came under a cloud, 
having lost his rank as First Lieutenant by 
his over-hasty surrender of Chemnitz. Prob- 
ably this fact may account for his restless 
energy as Governor of New Sweden. He 
sought to regain in the new world repute 
lost in the old. Prinz came with two ships, 
an armed transport, munitions of war. troops, 
and many immigrants, and with instructions 
to maintain and promote piety and education, 
to develop the resources of the colony, agri- 
cultural and mineral, to make friends with 
the Indians, and to live at peace with all 
neighboring Europeans. But he was to resent 
by force of arms, if need be. the pretensions of 



)4o Wilmino-ton 



&' 



the Dutch to any territorial or other rights 
upon the west side of the Delaware. 

Prinz built at Tinicum, or Tenacong as the 
Indians called it, near the present city of 
Chester, Pennsylvania, a fort to threaten the 
Dutch Fort Nassau, above ; and likewise at the 
mouth of Salem Creek, on the Jersey shore, 
where the Eno-Iish had a small settlement, he 
built Fort Elfsborg, or Elsinborough. Both 
were promptly armed and garrisoned. He 
built still another fort, this time on the Schuyl- 
kill, within gunshot of its mouth, and in 1646 
he ordered a Dutch trading-vessel from that 
river. Furthermore, he caused to be torn 
down with despiteful words the arms of the 
Dutch, set up in sign of possession upon the 
present site of Philadelphia, and when re- 
minded of the Dutch West India Compa- 
ny's prior claim, he profanely answered that 
although Satan was the earliest possessor of 
hell, doubtless he sometimes welcomed new 
comers. 

But a day of reckoning was speedily to 
come, for Peter Stuyvesant, Governor of the 
New Netherlands, moved by the amazing 
activity of Prinz, bought from the Indians all 
the west side of the Delaware from Minquas 



Wilmington 341 

Creek to Bompties (or Bombay) Hook, and 
in 1 65 1, as some say, — before the buikllng- of 
Elfsborg as others say, — buik Fort Casimir at 
Sand Huken, now Newcastle, on the Dela- 
ware, five miles below Fort Christina, and 
within sight of Elfsborg. Whichever fort 
was built first, it is pretty certain that the 
Swedes soon deserted Elfsborg, after naming 
it in disgust Myggenborg, which means Fort 
Mosquito. The excuse for the desertion was 
the insupportable insect pests of the region ; 
so early did the New Jersey mosquito earn 
the reputation that clings to him even to this 
day. As for Prinz, alarmed at the activity 
of the Dutch, he vainly petitioned the home 
government for aid, and at length went off to 
Europe, leaving as deputy his son-in-law, John 
Pappegoja. 

And now the comedy of outranking was to 
be followed by the comedy of bloodless cap- 
ture and recapture, for Prinz had not been 
'long gone when there arrived in the Delaware 
from Sweden, in the man-of-war Eagle, John 
Claudius Rising, as commissary and counsellor 
to the Governor, and Peter Lindstrom, mili- 
tary engineer, together with arms and soldiers. 
The Dutch at Fort Casimir were living in 



342 



Wilmington 



unsuspicious peace wlien the /iao^lc su(l(l<Mily 
«'t]j|;<';u'e(l IjefoHi the fort and demandc-d tliat 
til'- placf. surn-nder, as oc( iipyinti;' Swedish 
ground. Kising enforced his dcniaiid hy land- 




lil.MI'l NUI (>| III! I All I MwMA;, I. IIA.'/^I(U. 

inj;" thirty sohhcrs, and tlic I )ut(:h yicldccl upon 
favorahlc Iciius which s<<:iircd to tlirin all 
tlnir pi ojx Tl y, piil»li( and piivalc, and j.(ranlc(l 
as w<il the honor', of war. As llic (aphnc 
was made on 'Iriiiil)' .Snnda), the name ol llir 



Wilmington 34: 



•& 



place was changed by the Swedes to Trefall- 
digheet, or Fort Trinity. This incident, 
which befell in the year 1655, is notable as the 
first passage at arms, if such it may be called, 
between rival European claimants to the west- 
ern shore of the Delaware. 

But Rising's prompt policy of aggression 
was a mistake, for it left the Dutch no alter- 
native but counter-aggression ; and accordingly 
Peter Stuyvesant, with seven ships and six 
hundred or seven hundred men, appeared be- 
fore the deserted Elfsborglate in August, 1655, 
captured a few straggling Swedes ashore, en- 
dured the mosquitoes for one night only, and 
next day, having landed a force north of Fort 
Trinity to cut it off from Fort Christina, de- 
manded that the garrison surrender. Swen 
Schute, the Swedish commander, despite a 
name that ouoht to have been formidable in 
war, was as obligingly prompt in compliance as 
the Dutch commander had been a few months 
earlier. There was, as before, a friendly ar- 
rangement as to the guaranty of property, 
public and private, but Swen Schute never 
dared return to Sweden lest he be brought to 
book for his alacrity in surrendering. 

Now came the taking of Fort Christina, 



^v|4 \\ ilu\in;;UM\ 

\mn\ortali,'ovl b\ \\\\shin^ton Irvine's i^vnius of 
l>\ulosv|\»t\ Kisiuv;. ,v\v.\ir ot his woaknoss, prv>- 
iVssovl u> hoHrvo [\\M iho Puivh h.ul lu^ tuiihor 
hoslllo it\lr\H. Inu when tho\ iiwostv-vl 1\mI 
C'hnsiina iM\ ihivi^ sulos, planiovl oannon. and 
<\illrvl tor tlvo siuronvlor of iho pUor in fiMiv- 
cMv;l\l l\oiu>s ho tu'sl to»\\|H>ri.'od, thon put on >v 
Ih>K1 t.uo. .\nvl tn\.ill\. \\nl\v>nt sirikin^i a hUnv, 
svuM'xM\vltM*x\l, v'-iv^ onvlovl S\vovhsl\ rnh^ in Pol- 
awwiv, anti so bov;at\ tho shv>ri-]ivovl Putvh 
sn|M'o>\\av \ , 

Ihv^ Pntv'h v^nsVrantoovl u> tho vanijuishoil 
rolij^ious lihorty anvl all oihor ivasonahU^ privi- 
K\iix^s, so thai fow Swovh^s tvH^k tho ohanoo 
atlor\U\l of soUiui; thoir purport y and ivnww- 
inv; mil of tho jmisdiolion. ri\o Swodos, in- 
deoiK wt^iv soon iwonoiUnl ii> Pnioh rulo. anv! 
in fact th<^ o<^lony jvmainovl, in all savo pohtios, 
as tn»ly Swodish as it ha\l l>oon hoforo. Tho 
Piitoh ohiKh\M\ loainovl tho Swovhsh tv^i\i;no. 
aiul as tho Swovh s ta\ ovitnmnhorovl tho Pv\toh, 
I ho lattor woix^ soon Kvsi in tho twass of tl\o 
fiMMnor, \VluM\ a nophow of Trin,' visitc\l tho 
io\n\H\. lato in iht^ so\ontt^oi\th oontnry, ho 
fovn\vl that tho pov^plo "nsovl tl\o v^Ul Swovlish 
way in all ihin^^s," Tasior Kiuhnan \Yn>to 
hv^n\o iv> Swodon that tho n\v>thoi toniuio was 



Wilmington 



345 



still spoken in all its purity by the colonists at 
Christinaham, and as a matter of fact it did 
not entirely cease to be iisc^d in the services 




OLD SWEDES CHURCH. 



of the Swedish church until more than a cen- 
tury and a quarter had elapsed. 

Luckily for the Swedes they were too busy 
to trouble themselves about a change of mas- 
ters, and when the agents of James, Duke of 



;4^ Wilminq-ton 



c5 



York, having possessed themselves of Xew 
Amsterdam in 1664, after Charles I. had mag- 
nificently given to James all the countn- be- 
tween the Connecticut and the east bank of 
the Delaware, also seized Xew Sweden as a 
dependency of Xew Xetherlands, the good 
folk at Christinaham accepted the new situa- 
tion and went about their business. The at- 
tempted rebellion of Konigsmark, " the Long 
Finn," who called himself a son of General 
Count William \'on Konigsmark, and the 
historical interlude of the Dutch occupation in 
1673 and 1674, when the forts changed hands, 
in the usual bloodless fashion, twice in a few 
months, did not profoundly shake the com- 
munity on the Minquas. The second surren- 
der left the English in secure possession. 

In the midst of this apparent indifference to 
governmental changes, one thing did move the 
Swedes, and was doubtless in part responsible 
for the welcome they gave the return of the 
Dutch : this was a tariff imposed by the 
English rulers upon all inward-bound mer- 
chandise passing the capes of the Delaware. 
At this juncture there came to the rescue 
the best friend the Swedes had yet found 
in the new world, a man so wise and just 



Wilminorton 347 



in his dealinor with civiHzed man and savasfe 
on this side the Atlantic, so generous, toler- 
ant, large-minded and large-hearted in all that 
concerned the great powers entrusted to him, 
that one can hardly understand how even 
so audacious an iconoclast as jMacaulay had 
the hardihood to assail his memory. This 
man was William Penn, who, having recently 
become trustee for Quaker estates in West 
Jersey, made prompt protest against the tariff 
and had it revoked — an early triumph for the 
principle of no taxation without representation. 
When, soon after, he became proprietor 
of the " Three Counties on the Delaware," 
the Swedes of Christinaham and the region 
round about knew him and were glad. Penn 
had an equally good opinion of the Swedes, 
for he says : 

"As they are a proper people, and strong of body, 
so they have fine children, and almost every house 
full. It is rare to find one of them without three or 
four boys and as many girls, some six, seven and 
eight sons. And I must do them that right to say 1 
see few young men more sober and laborious." 

A Swedish writer of about the same period 
notes that the Swedish farmers are as well 
clad as the residents of cities. Penn describes 



348 



Wilmington 



the houses in his new possessions as of a 
single story and divided into three apartments. 
A house and a barn suitable to a colonist 
might be built for sevent)--hve dollars. 




REV. ERIC BJORK. 



Penn noted, however, that the Swedes were 
not so well educated as they should have been, 
and a few years later they were in such need 
of religious instruction, although they had but 



Wilmington 



349 



recently lost their pastor, that, partly throui^h 
the representations of the proprietor and partly 
through the importunities of the Swedes them- 
selves, the King of Sweden was induced to 
send out to Delaware the Rev. Eric Bjork. 




BISHOP LEE. 



This good and energetic man, finding incon- 
veniently situated the Swedish Lutheran church 
erected in 1667 at Crane Hook, or Tran Hook, 
near the mouth of the Christiana, conceived 
and executed the plan of building a new 
church near the scene of the original Swedish 
landino- at the Rocks. The new edifice was 



350 Wilmington 

the Old Swedes of to-day, which celebrated the 
two hundredth anniversary of its dedication on 
the 28th of last May. This venerable church, 
now Holy Trinity of the Protestant Episcopal 
Diocese of Delaware, is revered and cherished 
as the one visible link which joins the city of 
Wilmington to her earliest past. In the church- 
yard lie the dead of many generations, and 
of almost all denominations. Here, side by 
side with the Swedish colonists of the early 
eighteenth century, lies the late Bishop Alfred 
Lee of the Episcopal Church, who in life, as 
learned as he was modest, was one of the 
American Committee for the Revision of the 
King James Bible. Here, too, was recently 
laid to rest, amid many of his kinsfolk, the 
late Ambassador Thomas F. Bayard, wora 
with long and honorable public service. 

Thanks to the late Dr. Horace Burr we 
have an EncrHsh translation of the earliest 
records of Old Swedes. In these records is 
contained a curious account of the difficulties 
attendant upon the building of the new church. 
There w^ere quarrels over the glebe, the 
usual troubles with the contractor, and the 
inevitable changes of plan after the work was 
under way. Hired sawyers were paid so much 




THOMAS F. BAYARD. 
351 



152 Wilmine^ton 



t>' 



per foot, and " drink." In order to save wages 
the men of the parish came as they found 
leisure and hewed the timbers. Masons and 
other skilled mechanics came from Philadel- 
phia, then "a clever little town," and with 
them came Dick, a negro mortar-mixer. 

Notwithstanding the erection of the new 
church, the community seems to have grown 
away from the scene of the original landing, 
until in 1731 Thomas Willing, son-in-law of 
Andrew Justison, of Swedish blood, laid out 
"upon the Christiana front, half a mile from the 
Rocks, a new town modelled upon the rec- 
tangular plan of Philadelphia. The first house 
in Willingstown, built at the corner of Front 
and Market streets, bore in its brick gable 
a stone with the inscription, "J, W. S., 
1732." Three years later the place was only 
a small hamlet, but in that year Willings- 
town had a new birth, for then William Ship- 
ley, a wealthy, well educated and energetic 
English Friend of Ridley in Pennsylvania, 
came to the place and made himself, so to 
speak, its second founder. He came through 
the influence of his second wife, Elizabeth 
Lewis, a preacher of his own sect, who saw 
in a vision a goodly land lying at the foot 



Wilmington 353 



f5 



of a hill and traversed by two rivers, one wild 
and dashini^, the other sluggish and serpen- 
tine, and visiting by accident the region of the 
Swedish settlement on the Christiana, recog- 
nized the landscape of her vision. 

William Shipley built his house — an admi- 
rable example of eighteenth-century brick- 
work — at the corner of Fourth and Shipley 
streets, where it recently gave place to a 
modern business building. He built, also, a 
market-house for the town at the corner of 
Fourth and Market streets, and in doing so, 
paved the way for a quarrel with the partisans 
of the Second Street market-house, a body of 
citizens including many Swedes. 

So potent was the magic of William Ship- 
ley's presence that in four years the town had 
reached six hundred inhabitants. Next year 
it received a borough charter from Penn, and 
its name was changed to Wilmington, in 
honor of Lord Wilmington, says Ebeling, 
the German historian. It was a tight little 
borough, the Wilmington of that day and of 
fifteen or twenty years later. The burgesses, 
who at first met about in taverns, at length 
were comfortably housed in a neat little Town 
Hall built upon arches over one end of the 



154 



Wilmington 



Second Street market. There were fairs dur- 
ing most of the eighteenth century ; fairs to 
which hundreds came in hoHday attire and 




SHIPLEY BUILDING. 



dancing shoes to make merry to the sound of 
bagpipe, flute, fiddle and trombone. It is sig- 
nificant of grave Quaker austerity, perhaps, 
that the fairs were suppressed by act of Legis- 
lature in I 785, as nurseries of vice, a scandal 
to religion, and an offence to well ordered 



Wilminp:ton 355 



persons. There may have been some excuse 
for this severity, for indeed with tlie coming- of 
the Eng'Hsh had come something of the bru- 
tahty of eighteenth-century Enghsh manners. 
Bulhes fought naked to the waist in the 
market-place, and hired ruffians nearly cut 
down the posts that supported William Ship- 
ley's market-house. The most picturesque 
modern survival of Wilminofton in the eicrh- 
teenth century is the King Street open-air 
market, and with it remains the statute against 
forestalling, made to meet the case of some 
early monopolist. 

Wilming-ton's Quaker peace was little dis- 
turbed by echoes of European wars in the 
eighteenth century, though in 1741 the Chris- 
tiana was fortified against possible Spanish 
pirates ; but when the war of the Revolution 
came, Wilmington was loyal and ready. Old 
folk still preserve the tradition of Washing- 
ton's presence in the city just before the 
battle of the Brandywine, of his gay French 
officers in the sober house of a Quaker citizen, 
of President John McKinly's capture at mid- 
night by a detachment of British sent in after 
the battle, of the British wounded crowding the 
houses of citizens and probably saving the town 



156 



Wilmington 



from bombardment by British ships of war in 
the Delaware. Tradition recalls, too, the visit 
of Washington in his hour of victory, when he 
journeyed homeward to Mount Vernon, of his 




OLD FRIENDS' MEETINQ-HOUSE. 



Other visit on his journey northward to be 
inaug-urated as President at New York, and 
of still another visit in 1791, when he made his 
famous progress through the country. On 
that last visit, riding in his chariot of state 
through little Brandywine village, opposite 



Wilmington 357 

Wilmington, on the left bank of the Brandy- 
wine, he stopped at the house of miller Joseph 
Tatnall, to learn that he was at the mill, and 
then, with those great strides of his, walked 
through the village street to the edge of the 
stream, entered the mill, and talked wMth the 
courageous patriot Quaker of his services to 
the army during the war. 

By this time the borough had travelled far 
from the crudity of Swedish days and had 
even departed somewhat from the severity of 
Quaker tradition. There were French emi- 
grants from the black terror in Santo Do- 
mingo, and from the red terror in France. 
There were soon to be other French immi- 
grants, — Du Fonts, bringing a mingled flavor 
of aristocracy, learning and benevolence, des- 
tined to found orreat factories and to eive 
patriot soldiers and sailors to the land of their 
adoption, and yet to retain even to the fifth 
veneration the Gallic face, and air, and manner. 

Wealth and elegance were come to the little 
community on the Minquas. Had not Robert 
Montgomery made the tour of Europe, and 
did he not for four months during the plague 
of yellow fever at Philadelphia entertain Gov- 
ernor McKean of Pennsylvania ? Did not 



OD 



8 Wilmington 



another wealthy citizen entertain one hundred 
refugees of the same period ? And there was 
Gunning Bedford, Jr., aide-de-camp and friend 
to Washineton, inheritor of his crimson satin 
Masonic sash, his appointee as first Fed- 
eral Judge for the District of Delaware. He 
and his wife, a Read of distinguished colonial 
stock, entertained friend and stranger with 
splendid hospitality in the very house in Mar- 
ket Street that had been the headquarters of 
Washington's French officers. The Bedfords 
were Presbyterians. Gunning Bedford, Jr., 
worshipped in the quaint little First Presby- 
terian Church in Market Street near Tenth, 
now reverently preserved and occupied by the 
Delaware Historical Society. Hard by in the 
churchyard you may see Judge Bedford's 
tomb, a low but graceful domed shaft facing 
the public street, so that all may read the les- 
son of civic virtue, and bearing an inscription 
that closes thus : 

" His form was goodly, his temper amiable, 
His manners winning, and his discharge 
Of private duties exemplary. 
" Reader, may his example stimulate you to improve 
the talents — l)e they five, or two, or one — with which God 
has entrusted vou." 



Wilmington 



359 



\\'ilmino-ton built her new Town Hall just a 
century ago last year, and Friend Joseph Tat- 
nall gave the clock that shone in its tower 
and told the hours. The clock went out of 



r. f 




HOUSE OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

use more than thirty years ago, but the build- 
ing remains, not altogether spoiled by modern 
additions, sacred because of its associations, 
and testifying to the solidity with which the 
city fathers built in the last century. 

When the City Hall was built Penn's 



3^o Wilmin<:{ton 



& 



charter, unamended, still served the community, 
and continued to serve until 1809, when it was 
amended and the borough limits w^ere en- 
larged. The town was yet merely a borough 
when the War of 18 12 came on, and Senator 
James A. Bayard, the first of four Bayards to 
represent Delaware in the United States Sen- 
ate, helped with his own hands to build a fort 
almost upon the site of Fort Christina. A 
city charter came in 1832. The mayor was 
elected for three years by the city council, 
and the first mayor chosen was Richard H. 
Bayard. 

Wilminrfton as the intellectual centre of the 
State was naturally also the home of radical 
thought. Quaker sentiment had sunk deep 
into the community. An anti-slavery soci- 
ety was organized early. A great meeting at 
the Town Hall in 1820 adopted resolutions 
against the extension of slavery into the terri- 
tories. Sam Townsend, a picturesque and 
characteristic figure in the mid-century politics 
of the .State, was amazed and horrified to find 
that his brother, home after a week's visit to 
Wilmington, had returned with a tincture of 
abolitionism. Sam and his neighbors labored 
with the erring one, but could not meet his ar- 




CITY HALL. 
361 



362 Wilmington 

oruments ag-ainst holdinir one's fellow-men in 
bondage until Sam bethought him to deny 
the humanity of the negro, and thus snatched 
the brother as a brand from the burning. 

Wilmington was a station on the " under- 
ground railroad," and Thomas Garrett, a Quaker 
of Pennsylvanian birth, was the station-master 
— a man of prudence but of dauntless courage, 
who, left penniless at sixty by reason of a fine 
imposed upon him for violation of the Fugitive 
Slave Law, declared upon the court-house steps 
in his peculiar lisp : " I did it ; I 'm glad I did 
it ; and I 'd do it again." The Civil War came 
too soon for him, he said, for he had hoped 
to help away three thousand slaves, and had 
stopped at two thousand seven hundred. 

The conflict found Wilmington a little city 
of rough-cobbled streets, the metropolis of a 
small surrounding territory, visited daily by 
country folk, who drove twelve or fifteen miles, 
— came " to town," as the phrase went, — and 
having made their purchases, drove home, whip- 
ping in dread past " Folly Woods," since the 
days of Sandy Flash a place of evil reputation. 
The firing upon Fort Sumter stirred the com- 
munity to its depths, and the city lost no time 
in sending to the front more than her quota 





jLir. 






NEWCASTLE COUNTY COURT HOUSE. 



363 



;64 \\'ilmiiv't(>n 



r> 



of volunteers. Flags fluttered out all ovcv the 
cit)'. Barbers made haste to add to their poles 
a third stripe, a blue one, in token of loyalty. 
Amid all tlu- enthusiasm it was a time of acrid 
bitterness, tor 1 )t'la\vare was a bortler State 
with titizfus hoKhug openly or secretl)' opin- 
ions of many shades other than that recognized 
as true blue. i here were reported sullen 
threats of incendiarism on the part of the dis- 
affected ; there were man\' arrests of the dis- 
lo\al, an^l stubborn but entirel\' coiiscientious 
men, who would not take the oath of allegi- 
ance and were imprisoned or publicly shamed. 
It was no time for a nice weighing of mo- 
tives, and tht; hres of the WcU-time liatreds 
were nearly a generation in cooling. The 
city came out of the war chastened by sorrow 
and pained L>\ L>itter contention, but ready 
for a newer and broader life. She has since 
grown to yo^ooo people. ller boiiiularies 
have been extended to the 1 )elaware ; her fac- 
tories have vastly increased in volume and va- 
riety. Miles of territory have been covered 
with new homes. Water-works, sewers and 
parks hexve been created. New Castle, the 
old Dutch capital of New Amstel, has yielded 
up the court-houst; to Wilmington, but has 



Wilmington 



365 



held on to the whipping-post, as perhaps not 
quite in keeping with the modern mood of the 
city. But in spite of growth and change the 
old Quaker spirit, the ineradicable instinct of 
sobriety and decency, remains along with the 
Swedish and Dutch names two and a half cen- 
turies acfo. When the hush of eveninor falls 
upon the city and the crowds have melted 
from the sidewalks, then in the dusk of the 
deserted streets one may easily imagine the 
distinguished William Shipley and the gracious 
Elizabeth, the erin of broad-faced Dutchmen 
fresh from the harrowing of Svven Schute, 
the spectral figures of tow-haired Swedish 
farmers, or the grave, black-clad form of 
Pastor Torkillius with solemn eyes bent upon 
wondering peasant lads and lasses. 




BUFFALO 

"THE QUEEN CITY OF THE LAKES" 

By ROWLAND B. MAHANY 

FEW cities of the United States have a his- 
tory more picturesque than Buffalo, or 
more typical of the forces that have made the 
Republic great. At the time of the adoption 
of the Federal constitution, in 1787, not a sin- 
gle white settler dwelt on the site of what is 
now the Queen of the Lakes ; and it was not 
until after the second presidency of Washing- 
ton, that Joseph EUicott, the founder of Buf- 
falo, laid out the plan of the town, which he 
called New Amsterdam. Ellicott was a man 
of great ability, force and foresight, and with 
prophetic vision he saw the future importance 
of the city, which is now the fourth commer- 
cial entrepot of the world. He had been the 
assistant of his brother, Andrew EllicotL the 
first Surveyor General of the United States; 

367 



368 



Buffalo 



and the two brothers, together with General 
Washington, — himself an engineer by profes- 
sion, — had col- 
laborated with 
Captain Pierre 
Charles L'En- 
fant the plan of 
the National 
Capital. With 
the beautiful de- 
sign of W a s h- 
ington City fresh 
in his mind, Jo- 
seph E 1 1 i c o 1 1 
ofave to the vil- 
lageof New 
Amsterdam a 
similar system of 
radiating^ broad avenues, embracino- in the ter- 
ritory they enclosed rectangular systems of 
streets. The avenues were 99 feet in width 
and the streets 66 feet. The surveys were 
begun in 1798 and completed in 1805. In- 
directly, therefore, Buffalo is indebted to 
President Washington for some of its topo- 
graphical features. 

The early history of the village is not unlike 




JOSEPH ELLICOTT. 

FOUNDER OF BUFFALO. 



Buffalo 369 

that of most of our inland cities which have 
grown from conditions common to the Cana- 
dian and to the western frontier ; and differs, 
perhaps, chiefly in this regard, that owing to 
the natural advantages of the town's situation 
and its proximity to the great cataract of 
Niagara Falls, its annals are rich with in- 
stances of exploration, of war and of romance; 
for adventure and enterprise met here at the 
beginning of the century. 

The period when the Mohawks, the Eries, 
the Hurons, the Tuscaroras, the Neuters (so 
called because they were a peaceful tribe) and 
the Senecas were the sole possessors of this 
region was succeeded by the epoch of the 
French traders, whose business was in turn 
absorbed by their Dutch competitors. These 
gave way to the alert descendants of New 
England, who yielded back again the suprem- 
acy to a group of Dutch capitalists, composing 
the Holland Land Company, whose first agent 
was Joseph Ellicott. 

The primitive scenery of Buffalo must have 
been almost incomparable in its beauty. The 
wooded hills, the fertile plains, the superb 
river and the mighty lake enchanted alike the 
savaije and the civilized beholder. Even now, 



370 Buffalo 

when commerce has invaded the loveHness of 
the prospect by investing one of the greatest 
harbors in the world with a fortress of eleva- 
tors and crowding it with a forest of masts, 
artists and tourists unite in saying that the 
Buffalo sunsets are not rivalled anywhere save 
by those on the Bay of Naples. 

In 1806, the first schoolhouse was built on 
the corner of Swan and Pearl streets, — the 
humble pioneer of an educational system that 
now embraces sixty modern grammar schools, 
three collegiate High Schools, and innumer- 
able independent and private institutions of 
learning. Notable among these latter is the 
Le Couteulx Asylum for the instruction of the 
deaf and dumb. This beneficent institution 
owes its origin to the liberality of the Le 
Couteulx family. Louis Stephen Le Couteulx 
de Caumont, a Norman-French gentleman of 
station and culture, was the founder of the 
family in Buffalo. He came to New Amster- 
dam in 1804. 

On February 10, 1810, the " Town of Buf- 
faloe " was created by an act of the legislature. 
This was the name originally given to the set- 
tlement by the Senecas, and there is little 
doubt that it was derived from the visits of the 



o/ - 



Buffalo 



bison to the neighboring salt-licks. However 
that may be, the village of New Amsterdam 
was merged in iSio into the town of Buffalo. 

With the disappearance of the Dutch appel- 
lation of the town, vanished also the Dutch 
nomenclature of the streets. Van Staphorst 
and Willink Avenues were connected and 
called Main Street ; Stadinzky Avenue, a name 
suoforestive of the Polish element that later was 
to swell in such numbers the population of the 
city, became Church Street ; Niagara Street 
succeeded Schimmelpennick Avenue ; and 
Vollenhoven Avenue was chanored into Erie 
Street. 

The origin of some of Buffalo's thorough- 
fares is interesting and amusing. Utica Street 
was formerly a lane on the old Hodge farm, 
and led from the Cold Spring region to 
the Elmwood Avenue district. The people 
using it, however, were very careless about 
closing the gates, and this so irritated Mr. 
Hodge that he locked the gates and closed 
the lane. An indignation meetinor was called 
in the little schoolhouse at Cold Spring. The 
schoolmaster was the chief speaker, and unless 
tradition does violence to his grammar, the 
principal part of his speech consisted of the 



Buffalo 2>7Z 

declaration that "them Hodges is maintainiii' 
a 'pent-up Uticky.'" When Mr. Hodge heard 
of the meeting, he relented and offered to give 
the people the lane on condition that the town 
government would lay out a street. The offer 
was accepted and the new thoroughfare was 
called Utica Street in commemoration of the 
schoolmaster's speech. 

The inevitable newspaper appeared on the 
3d of October, 181 1, when the Buffalo Ga- 
zette issued its first number. The Gazette 
was the forerunner of journals which to-day 
recognize as their only competitors the Met- 
ropolitan press. 

On the 26th of June, 181 2, the tidings of 
war with Great Britain reached Buffalo, and on 
Auofust I ^th the first orun of the struecrle is said 
to have been fired by the battery at Black Rock, 
then a rival, now a suburb, of Buffalo. The ex- 
citement was intense ; for all recoofnized that 
the growing town, because of its frontier situa- 
tion, was sure to be one of the theatres of hos- 
tilities. Nor was this a mistaken idea, as 
subsequent events proved. Immediately after 
the declaration of war, the British soldiers from 
the Canadian garrison at Fort Erie, directly 
across the river from Buffalo, made an incur- 



374 Buffalo 

sion, and captured the schooner Co^inccticiUy 
at anchor in the Buffalo Creek. This humili- 
ation, however, was more than wiped out by the 
daring exploit of Lieutenant Jesse D. Elliott, 
U. S. N., who, on October 9, 181 2, crossed the 
river, and boldly attacked two vessels lying un- 
der the guns of Fort Erie. One of these, the De- 
troit, of six guns, had been captured by the Brit- 
ish at the surrender of that town ; the other was 
the Caledonia, of two guns. With a loss of two 
killed and five wounded, Elliott's force cap- 
tured both vessels and took prisoners, officers 
and men, to the number of seventy-one. Forty- 
seven American prisoners taken by the British 
at the River Raisin, were released by Elliott. 
The Detroit was carried down the stream when 
the cables were cut, and ran aground on Squaw 
Island. The British opened a lively cannon- 
ading from the Canadian shore and attempted 
to recapture the vessel, but were driven off by 
the Americans, who, unable to float it, burned 
it to the water's edge. For his brilliant coup. 
Lieutenant Elliott was voted a sword of honor 
by Congress. 

One great advantage the British possessed 
early in the war was their superiority on the 
Lakes. The Queen Charlotte, of twent)'-two 



-4 




3/6 Buffalo 

guns, the Hiintci', of twelve guns, and a small 
armed schooner patrolled the Erie coast-line in 
the neighborhood of Bufifalo, and kept the in- 
habitants of the region in a constant state of 
fear and excitement. To remedy this disad- 
vantage, the Government, in the spring of 
1813, sent Captain Oliver Hazard Perry to fit 
out a war fleet at Erie, Pennsylvania. He ar- 
rived in Buffalo in March, and thence pro- 
ceeded to his destination. The Government 
had purchased a number of merchant craft, 
and these he immediately began converting 
into men-of-war. Some new vessels also were 
built. Five gunboats were fitted out at Buf- 
falo on Scajaquada Creek, On September 10, 
1813, Perry, with an inferior force, both in the 
number of men and guns, gave battle to the 
British and captured or destroyed their entire 
fleet. This victory was not only the most not- 
able of the war, but is one of the most con- 
spicuous in our naval history. In the midst 
of the battle Perry's ship was sunk, and he left 
it in an open boat, and, under the fire of the 
enemy, went to another vessel of his fleet, 
whence he directed the operations that ren- 
dered the battle of Lake Erie an illustrious 
triumph for American arms. 



Buffalo m 

In a few months, however, the exultation of 
Buffalo's citizens was turned Into mournino- 
through the burning of the town by the Brit- 
ish. On the 29th of December, General 
Rial!, with twelve hundred men, regulars, mil- 
itia and Indians, landed below Scajaquada 
Creek, and owing to the confusion which pre- 
vailed in the councils of the local military 
commanders, captured the town with little 
difficulty. The inhabitants had fled, and every 
dwelling, with one or two exceptions, was given 
over to the flames. Mrs. St. John and two of 
her daughters remained to protect their house, 
and owing to the chivalry of Colonel Elliott, 
the commander of the Indians, neither the 
ladies nor their household possessions were 
molested. Mrs. Joshua Lovejoy, who also re- 
mained in her home, where the Tifft House 
now stands, was imprudent enough to have an 
altercation with the Indians, and was slain by 
one of them. Her house was burned, and her 
dead body with it. 

On the withdrawal of the British, the citi- 
zens returned from their flight, bringing back 
with them such household goods as they had 
gathered together on their hasty departure, 
and forthwith the rebuildinof of Buffalo com- 



37^ Buffalo 

menced. The American loss in the encraofe- 
ment preceding the capture of the town was 
heavy. Between forty and fifty of our troops 
were killed, as many more wounded, and about 
ninety prisoners were carried off by the victors. 
From all these reverses the people of the little 
town measurably recovered in the succeeding 
five or six months. On April lo, 1814, Briga- 
dier-General Winfield Scott came to Buffalo, 
and shortly after, Major-General Brown arrived. 
The preparations for an advance on the Cana- 
dian position were pushed forward as rapidly 
as possible, and on July 3d the movement be- 
gan. Three brigades, — two of regulars, one of 
volunteers, — accompanied by a few Indians, 
crossed the river, and captured Fort Erie. 
Thence proceeding down the Canadian bank, 
they engaged the enemy at Chippewa on July 
5th, and won a decisive victory. 

The Americans wore temporary uniforms of 
gray, and it was in honor of the conspicuous 
gallantry displayed by our troops in this con- 
fiict that gray was adopted as the uniform for 
the West Point cadets. 

The volunteer brigade was commanded by 
General Peter B. Porter, for many years a 
member of Congress from Erie County, and 




ST. PAUL'S CHURCH. 



J 



80 Buffalo 



afterwards Secretary of War for a brief period 
under John Ouincy Adams. General Porter 
distinofuished himself also in the battle of 
Lundy's Lane, and throughout the war gained 
such reputation for valor, skill and eloquence, 
that to him has been assigned the credit of 
being the pioneer in organizing the volunteer 
system of the American Army. 

During all this war the famous Seneca chief. 
Red Jacket, took an active part in behalf of 
the Americans, and though he had little love 
for the white mv.n on either side of the contro- 
versy, still his influence was cast in favor of 
those who were the neighbors and friends of 
his people. Innumerable anecdotes are told 
of the wisdom, oratory and dignity of the 
great sachem, and a later generation has raised 
in Forest Lawn Cemetery an imposing statue 
to his memory. 

Aft(;r the battle of Chippewa, General Riall, 
the British commander, retreated to Queens- 
town, and thence to Fort George, the Ameri- 
cans in pursuit. The British, however, were 
reinforced and General Brown decided to re- 
turn to Fort Erie. Riall, in turn, pursued. 
On July 25th the contcmdi ng forces met near 
Lundy's Lane, and one of the most fiercely 



Buffalo ^Si 



fought battles of the war followed. The con- 
flict began a little before nightfall, and raged 
until nearly ten o'clock, when the Americans 
held undisputed possession of the field. Gen- 
eral Riall and one hundred and sixty-eight 
prisoners were captured. Both General Brown 
and General Scott were wounded, as was also 
Captain Worth, afterwards famous in the 
Mexican War. 

The command of the American forces then 
devolved upon General Ripley, who took up 
his position at Fort Erie and was there be- 
sieged by Lieutenant -General Drummond. 
On August 3d, the British directed a savage 
onslaught against the Fort, but were driven 
back with loss. They continued, however, 
to invest the American position. On Septem- 
ber I 7th, General Porter headed an attack on 
the besiegfinsf force, and such was the sfallan- 
try of the American volunteers that the Brit- 
ish veterans were dispersed. General Napier, 
the English military historian, cites this sortie 
as one of the few in all history that at a single 
stroke compelled the raising of a siege. The 
Governor brevetted Porter a major-general, 
and Concrress voted him a s^-old medal. 

With this exploit at Fort Erie, the War of 



o 



82 Buffalo 



181 2 was pnictically over, so far as ihc inter- 
ests of liuffalo wt!re concerned. When llie 
American lr(Jops retircul lioin I'Oit l{ri(^, they 
blew it up, and its ruins are one ol the pictur- 
esque features of the n^^ion ahout Hulfalo. 

The commercial greatness of the city is 
indissohihly associated with ihe ICrie Canal, 
in 1S07-8 Jesse Ilawley of Cieneva wrote a 
series of articles in the Ontario Mcsscui^er. In 
these he advocated the construction of a i^rand 
canal connecting Lake Krit; witii the Atlantic 
Ocean. This idea fouiul favor with Joseph 
Fdlicott, DeWitt Clint(^n, Gouverneur Morris, 
and VvXvx W. Porter, and so stroujj^ did the 
sentiment for the project become, that in 1816 
a l)ill pass(;tl the Assenibl)', directing" that th(! 
work of construction be commenced. The 
Senate, however, decided that additional sur- 
veys should be made. The work of j:)repara- 
lion was inaugurated July i.|, 1817; and on 
the 9th of August, 1823, th(; work of actual 
construction began in I'.rie County by the 
l)reaking of ground for the (anal, near the 
place where is now th(; Conunercial Street 
bridge in Buffalo. The great waterway was 
completed on October 25, 1825, and the first 
boat, ScHCca Chief, started on its voyage from 



Buffalo 



3^3 



Buffalo to the Hudson. DeWitt Clinton, 
then the Governor of the State and chief 




MILLARD FILLMORE. 



promoter of the canal, graced the ceremonies 
with his presence. 

In this connection, it is interestinpr to observe 
that, in 1819, the question whether Buffalo or 



3«4 Buffalo 

Black Rock should be the western termuius of 
the canal was settled in favor of the former 
throuij;"h the public spirit and enterprise of 
Charles Townsend, Samuel Wilkeson, Oliver 
Forward and George Coit. These men gave 
each a bond of $8,000 for the purpose of 
securing a loan of $12,000 from the State to 
construct a harbor, the State reserving the 
right to accept or reject, as it pleased, the 
completed work. From this time on, Judge 
Wilkeson devoted his immense energies and 
great executive ability to the interests of Buf- 
falo in connection with the canal, and to him 
may justly be ascribed the credit of being the 
founder of hc^r lake commerce. It was alto- 
gether appropriate, therefore, that, on the 
opening of the canal, he should have been 
given the honor of pouring into the lake the 
water brought from the ocean, an event de- 
scribed as the Wedding of the Atlantic and 
Lake Erie. It recalled the marriage in old 
time of Venice and the Adriatic. 

Near where LaSalle, in 1679, built his little 
sailing vessel, the GriJ)m, three New York 
capitalists completed on May 28, 1818, the 
first steamboat that plied the waters of Lake 
Erie. This was fittingly named, after the 



Buffalo 385 

Wyandot chieftain, Walk-in-t he-Water, The 
little vessel was lost three years later, but it 
marked the beginning of steam navigation on 
the Lakes — since grown to such perfection as 
to rival the navigation of the sea. 

The influence of the Erie Canal has been 
incomparably great, not merely in the rise of 
one city, but, in a larger sense, in the develop- 
ment of the State and the nation. The com- 
mercial forces which it generated have aided 
in building up the wealth of the Middle West, 
and the impetus of the resultant enterprise has 
finally reached every industry of the continent. 
To the canal, more than to any other factor, 
Buffalo owes its growth and importance. The 
little hamlet founded by Joseph Ellicott now 
has a population of 390,000. The city's coal 
receipts in 1898 were 2,455,191 tons ; its lum- 
ber receipts, 189,075,938 feet ; its grain re- 
ceipts, 267,395,434 bushels. It has a harbor 
enclosed by a new breakwater nearly four 
miles in length, and costing over ^2,000,000. 
The coal interests have constructed the great- 
est trestles in the world. Forty-one elevators, 
with a capacity of 20,920,000 bushels, line the 
harbor. There are 3500 manufactories. The 
park system comprises thousands of acres, with 



-,86 



Buffalo 



seventeen miles of park driveways. Twenty- 
six railroads enter the city, with 250 passenger 
trains daily, and have nearly 700 miles of 




BEACON ON OLD BREAKWATER. 



trackage within the city limits. The electric 
power from Niagara Falls is delivered at Buf- 
falo in practically unlimited quantities. There 
are 24 banks, and 184 churches. The city has 
116 miles of street paved with stone, 6 miles 



Buffalo 387 

paved with brick, and 225 miles with asphalt, 
or more asphalt than any other city in the 
world, not excepting Paris, Washington, or 
London. Two public libraries contain more 
than 180,000 volumes. In handling flour and 
wheat, Buffalo is the first city in the world. 
Its fresh-fish industry aggregates an annual 
distribution of 15,000,000 pounds. Buffalo's 
horse market is the most important in the 
country ; and in cattle and hogs, the trade of 
the city is second only to that of Chicago. 
The sheep market is the largest in the United 
States. 

The climate of Buffalo, with the exception 
of high winds during certain portions of the 
winter, is probably as delightful as that en- 
joyed by any city on the globe. In summer, 
the temperature is nearly always moderate, 
and when other cities suffer from extreme 
heat, the people of Buffalo are blessed with 
the conditions common to late summer in 
other regions. 

The residence portion of the city is cele- 
brated for its beauty. The avenues are wide, 
the dwellings elegant and commodious, the 
lawn effects charming, and the trees superb. 

Buffalo is entering upon what might be 



i88 



Buffalo 



termed its metropolitan period. New forces, 
new ideas, are building splendid superstructures 
on the foundations established by the genera- 




DELAWARE AVENUE, SHOWING BISHOP QUIOLEY'S HOUSE. 

tion now passing away. From the time of the 
city's incorporation, in 1832, the bench and 
the bar, the medical and the clerical profes- 
sions, have been especially rich with the names 
of those who have left a lasting impress upon 



Buffalo 



389 



the thoucrht of the city, the state and the na- 
tion. The pohtical Hfe and the business prog- 
ress have been dignified by men of intellect 
and character. 
Such names as 
the Riorht Rev- 
erend Arthur 
Cleveland Coxe, 
Protestant Epis- 
copal Bishop of 
Western New 
York ; the Right 
Reverend Ste- 
phen Vincent 
Ryan, Roman 
Catholic Bishop 
of Buffalo ; John 
Ganson, one of 
the criants of the 
legal profession ; Millard Fillmore, a former 
President of the United States ; Doctors 
George N. Burwell and John Cronyn, cultured 
physicians of the old school ; William I. Wil- 
liams, the pioneer of Buffalo's unrivalled paved 
streets ; the Reverend Doctor William Shel- 
ton, rector of St. Paul's Church ; the Reverend 
Doctor John Lord, perhaps the most famous 




DR. JOHN CRONYN. 



!90 



Buffalo 



of Buffalo's Presbyterian divines ; James M. 
Smith, Justice of the Supreme Court, recall 
types of men whose ability, intecrrity and civic 
worth w o u 1 d 
contribute to 
advance civiliza- 
tion in any com- 
munity. 

During the 
Civil War, Buf- 
falo did its pat- 
riotic share 
towards the 
preservation o f 
the Union, The 
names of W i 1- 
liam F. Rogers, 
Michael Wied- 
rich, James P. 
McMahon, Daniel D. Bidwell, Edward P. 
Chapin, John Wilkeson and William Richard- 
son are cherished by the people of Buffalo and 
Erie County as typical of the soldiers who, in 
reeiment after reiriment, enlisted there for the 
war. 

In legislation, also, the city contributed its 
part to the successful prosecution of the 




WILLIAM I. WILLIAMS. 



Buffalo 



)9i 



struggle. On December 30, 1861, Mr. E. G. 
Spaulding, member of Congress from Buffalo, 
introduced the bill which afterwards became 
famous as the Legal-Tender Act, whereby the 
Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to 
issue $50,000,000 in Treasury notes, payable 
on demand, in denominations of not less than 
$5, these to be the legal tender for all debts, 
public and private, and exchangeable for the 
bonds of the Government at par. 

Nearly every element of American progress 
has entered into the growth of this beautiful 
city. Its development has been brilliant in 
enterprise, luminous in education, rich in ro- 
mance, splendid in achievement, and noble in 
patriotism. In a word, Buffalo has kept pace 
with the Great Republic. 




PITTSBURGH 



THE INDUSTRIAL CITY 



By SAMUEL HARDEN CHURCH 



GEORGE WASHINGTON, the Father 
of his Country, is equally the Father of 
Pittsburgh, for he came thither in November, 
1753, and established the location of the now 
imperial city by choosing it as the best place 
for a fort. Washington was then twenty-one 
years old. He had by that time written his 
precocious one hundred and ten maxims of 
civility and good behavior ; had declined to 
be a midshipman in the British Navy ; had 
made his only sea-voyage to Barbadoes ; had 
surveyed the estates of Lord Fairfax, going 
for months into the forest without fear of sav- 
age Indians or wild beasts, and was now a 
major of Virginia militia. In pursuance of the 
claim of Virginia that she owned that part of 

393 



;94 Pittsburo^h 



Pennsylvania in which Pittsburgh is situated, 
Washington came there as the agent of Gov- 
ernor Dinwiddie to treat with the Indians. 
With an eye alert for the dangers of the wilder- 
ness, and with Christopher Gist beside him, 
the young Virginian pushed his cautious way to 
" The Point" of land where the confluence of 
the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers forms 
the Ohio. That, he declared, with clear mili- 
tary instinct, was the best site for a fort ; and 
he rejected the promontory two miles below, 
wdiich the Indians had recommended for that 
purpose. 

As early as 1728 a daring hunter or trader 
found the Indians at the head waters of the 
Ohio, — among them the Delawares, Shawan- 
ese, Mohicans and Iroquois, — whither they 
tracked the bear from their villaore of Loo;s- 
town, seventeen miles down the river. They 
also employed the country roundabout as a 
highway for their march to battle against 
other tribes, and against each other. At that 
time France and England were disputing for 
the new continent. France, by right of her 
discovery of the Mississippi, claimed all the 
lands drained by that river and its tribu- 
taries, — a contention which would naturally 




AN EARLY RESIDENT OF PITTSBURGH. 

(from a statue by T. a. mills in the CARNEGIE MUSEUM.) 



39^ Pittsburgh 

plant her banner upon the summit of the 
Allecrhanv Mountains/ Enc^land, on the other 
hand, claimed evervthinof from ocean-shore 
to ocean-shore. This situation produced war, 
and Pittsburo;-h became the strategic key of 
the great ^Middle West. The French made 
early endeavors to win the allegiance of the 
Indians, and they felt encouraged to press 
their friendly overtures because they usually 
came amonof the red men for tradincf or ex- 
ploration, while the English invariably seized 
and occupied their lands. In 1731 some 
French settlers did attempt to build a group 
of houses at Pittsburgh, but the Indians com- 
pelled them to go away. The next year the 
Governor of Pennsylvania summoned two 
Indian chiefs from Pittsburgh to sav whv thev 
had been q-oinor to see the French Governor 
at Montreal ; and they gave answer that he 
had sent for them only to express the hope 
that both English and French traders mieht 
meet at Pittsburgh and carry on trade amica- 
bly. The Governor of Pennsylvania sought 
to induce the tribes to draw themselves 
farther east, where thev miofht be made to feel 

^ The word is commonly spelt thus for the mountains, but thus — 
Allegheny — for the river, county and citj". 



Pittsburgh 397 

the hand of authority, but Sassoonan, their 
chief, forbade them to stir. An Iroquois 
chief who joined his entreaties to those of the 
Governor was soon afterward killed by some 
Shawanese braves, but they were forced to 
flee into Virginia to escape the vengeance of 
his tribe. 

Louis Celeron, a French officer, made an 
exploration of the country contiguous to 
Pittsburgh in 1747, and formally enjoined the 
Governor of Pennsylvania not to occupy the 
ground, as France claimed its sovereignty. A 
year later the Ohio Company was formed, with 
a charter ceding: an immense tract of land for 
sale and development, including Pittsburgh. 
This corporation built some storehouses at 
Logstown to facilitate their trade with the 
Indians, which were captured by the French, 
together with skins and commodities valued 
at ^20,000 ; and the purposes of the Com- 
pany were never accomplished. 

As soon as Washington's advice as to the 
location of the fort was received, Captain Wil- 
liam Trent was dispatched to Pittsburgh with 
a force of soldiers and workmen, packhorses 
and materials, and he began in all haste to 
erect a stronghold. The French had already 



;98 



Pittsburgh 



built forts on the northern lakes, and they now 
sent Captain Contrecoeur down the Allegheny 
with one thousand French, Canadians and 




SUN-DIAL USED AT FORT DUQUESNE. 

Indians, and eighteen pieces of cannon, in a 
llotilla of sixty bateaux and three hundred 
canoes. Trent had planted himself in Pitts- 
burgh on February i 7, i 754, — a date import- 



Pittsburgh 399 



ant because it marks the first permanent white 
settlement there. But his work had been re- 
tarded ahke by the small number of his men 
and the severity of the w^inter ; and when 
Contrecoeur arrived in April, the young sub- 
altern who commanded in Trent's absence 
surrendered the unfinished works, and was 
permitted to march away with his thirty-three 
men. The French completed the fort and 
named it Duquesne, in honor of the Governor 
of Canada ; and they held possession of It for 
four years. 

Immediately on the loss of this fort, Vlr- 
o^Inla sent a force under Washingfton to retake 
it. Washington surprised a French detach- 
ment near Great Meadows, and killed their 
commander, Jumonville. When a larger ex- 
pedition came against him, he put up a stock- 
ade near the site of Unlontown, naming it Fort 
Necessity, which he was compelled to yield 
on terms of marching away with the honors 
of war. 

The next year (1755) General Edward 
Braddock came over with two regiments of 
British soldiers, and, after augmenting his 
force with Colonial troops and a few Indians, 
began his fatal march upon Fort Duquesne- 



400 Pittsburorh 



£>' 



Braddock's testy disposition, his consuming 
egotism, his contempt for the Coh)nial soldiers 
and his stubborn adherence to miHtary maxims 
that were inappHcable to the warfare of the 
wilderness alienated the respect and confidence 
of the American contingent, robbed him of an 
easy victory and cost him his life. Benjamin 
Franklin had warned him against the immi- 
nent risk of Indian ambuscades, but he had 
contemptuously replied : " These savages may 
indeed be a formidable enemy to your raw 
American militia ; but upon the King's regu- 
lar and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible 
they should make any impression." Some of 
his English staff-officers urged him to send 
the rangers in advance and to deploy his In- 
dians as scouts, but he rejected their pru- 
dent suggestions with a sneer. On July 9th 
his army, comprising twenty-two hundred 
soldiers and one hundred and fifty Indians, 
was marching down the south bank of the 
Monongahela. The variant color and fashion 
of the expedition, — the red-coated regulars, the 
blue-coated Americans, the naval detachment, 
the rano-ers in deerskin shirts and lesfeines, 
the savages half-naked and befeathered, the 
glint of sword and gun in the hot daylight, 



Pittsburgh 401 

the long wagon train, the himbering cannon, 
the drove of bullocks, the royal banner and 
the Colonial gonfalon, — the pomp and puis- 
sance of it all composed a spectacle of martial 
splendor unseen in that country before. On 
the right was the tranquil river, and on the 
left the trackless wilderness whence the startled 
deer sprang away into a deeper solitude. At 
noon the expedition crossed the river and 
pressed on toward Fort Duquesne, ten miles 
below, expectant of victory. What need to 
send out scouts when the King's troops are 
here ? Let young George Washington and 
the rest urge it all they may ; the thing is 
beneath the dignity of his Majesty's General. 

But here, when they have crossed, is a level 
plain, elevated but a few feet above the surface 
of the river, extending nearly half a mile land- 
wards, and then gradually ascending into thickly 
wooded hills, with Fort Duquesne beyond. 
The troops in front had crossed the plain and 
plunged into the road through the forest for 
a hundred feet, when a heavy discharge of 
musketry and arrows was poured upon them, 
which wrought in them a consternation all the 
greater because they could see no foe any- 
where. They shot at random, but without 
26 



402 Pittsburorh 



t>' 



effect, while the hidden enemy kept up an in- 
cessant and destructive fire. In this distress- 
ing situation their courage forsook them, and 
they fell back into the plain. Braddock rode 
in among them, and he and his officers persist- 
ently endeavored to rally them, but without 
success. The Colonial troops adopted the In- 
dian method, and each man fought for himself 
behind a tree. This was forbidden by Brad- 
dock, who attempted to form his men in pla- 
toons and columns, making their slaughter 
inevitable. The French and Indians, concealed 
in the ravines and behind trees, kept up a cruel 
and deadly fire, until the British soldiers lost 
all presence of mind and began to shoot each 
other and their own officers, and hundreds 
were thus slain. The Virginia companies 
charged gallantly up a hill with a loss of 
but three men, but when they reached the 
summit the British soldiery, mistaking them 
for the enemy, fired upon them, killing fifty 
out of eighty men. The Colonial troops then 
resumed the Indian fashion of fighting from 
behind trees, which provoked Braddock, who 
had had five horses killed under him in three 
hours, to storm at them and strike them with 
his sword. At this moment he was fatally 




THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 
FROM AN OIL PAINTING IN THE POSSESSION OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



403 



404 Pittsburgh 

wounded, and many of his men now fled away 
from the hopeless action. Washington had 
had two horses killed and received three 
bullets through his coat. Being the only 
mounted officer who was not disabled, he 
drew up the troops still on the field, directed 
their retreat, maintaining himself at the rear 
with great coolness and courage, and brought 
away his wounded general. Sixty-four Brit- 
ish and American officers, and nearly one 
thousand privates, were killed or wounded 
in this battle, while the total French and In- 
dian loss was not over sixty. A few prisoners 
captured by the Indians were brought to Pitts- 
burgh and burnt at the stake. Four days after 
the fight Braddock died, exclaiming to the last, 
" Who would have thought it ! " 

Despondency seized the English settlers 
after Braddock's defeat. But two years after- 
ward William Pitt became Prime Minister, 
and he thrilled the nation with his appeal to 
protect the Colonies against France and the 
savages. His letters inspired the Americans 
with new hope, and he promised to send 
them British troops and to supply their own 
militia with arms, ammunition, tents and pro- 
visions at the Kinir's charge. He sent twelve 



Pittsburgh 405 

thousand soldiers from England, which were 
joined to a Colonial force aggregating fifty 
thousand men, — the most formidable army yet 
seen in the new world. The plan of campaign 
embraced three expeditions : the first against 
Louisburg, in the island of Cape Breton, which 
was successful ; the second asrainst Ticonder- 
oga, which succeeded after a defeat ; and the 
third against Fort Duquesne. General Forbes 
commanded this expedition, comprising about 
seven thousand men. The militia from Vir- 
ginia, North Carolina and Maryland was led 
by Washington. On September 12, 1758, 
Major Grant, a Highlander, led an advance- 
guard of 850 men to a point two miles from 
the fort, which is still called Grant's Hill, 
where he rashly permitted himself to be sur- 
rounded and attacked by the French and In- 
dians, half his force being killed or wounded, 
and himself slain. Washington followed soon 
after, and opened a road for the advance of 
the main body under Forbes. Fort Fronte- 
nac, on Lake Ontario, had just been taken by 
General Amherst, with the result that supplies 
for Fort Duquesne were cut off. When, there- 
fore, the French commandant learned of the 
advance of a superior force, having no hope of 



I' '" I iM'.hiiir h 

I • llll< M I . Ill< III '., Il< M< W ll| • I III li >l I, 'a I lilt I ti 
IIk .I<I|.I<>I|I iMIllillllf"! .Ill>l >ll<\\ Itr. I'.IIIIMMt 

,l\\ ,l\ 

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Pittshiireh 



407 



superiority of Hritish arms, tlu- lirsl I'rotcs- 
taiU service in lMllsl)iirL;li. '['hi' I'reiu-li liail 
had a Ivoniaii Catholit" chaplain, I'.ilher liaroii, 
during 1 heir occiipanc\ . 

The I'aiL^hsh proceeihd to hiiild a new h)rl 
ahoiil two hundred \ardslroin the site ol I'Drt 
I )n(piesne, which the\' called l'"ort Pitt. Ihis 
stronghold at Tittshnr^h (aU oil I'rench trans- 
|)ortation to the Mississippi hy \\a\' ol the 
( )hio Ixivcr, and the onl\' remaining I'onte, l)\' 
\\A\ ol the (ireal LaUc^s, was soon alterward 
closed hy th<' lall of I'orl Nia^-ara. The fall 
of (}uel)ec, with the death ol the two opposing 
(lenerals, Montcalm and Wolle, and the cap- 
ture ol Montreal, ended the claims ol I'rancc 
to soverei^nt)' in the new world. 

llu; nc;w' fort hcino- found too small, (icn- 
eral Stanwix huilt a sccontl l'\)rt Tilt, much 
larm'r and sti'onm'r, designed for a ^ari'ison of 
one thousand men. The Indians \iewed the 
newcomers with suspicion, hut Colonel I lenr)' 
Hou(|ut;t assuretl them, with diplomatic ter- 
giversation, that, " We ha\ (' not come here to 
take possession of your coiintr\ in a hostile 
manner, as the I'rench did when they cauu; 
amoULi )'ou, but to o|)en a larL^e and extensive 
trade with you and all other nations ol Indians 



4o8 Pittsburgh 

to the westward." A redoubt (the " Block- 
House ") buih by Colonel Bouquet in 1764 
still stands, in a very good state of preserva- 
tion, being cared for by the ^Daughters of the 
American Revolution. The protection of the 
garrison naturally attracted a few traders, mer- 
chants and pioneers to Pittsburgh, and a per- 
manent population began to grow. 

But the indigenous race continued to resent 
the extension of white encroachment ; and 
they formed a secret confederacy under Pontiac, 
the renowned Ottawa chief, who planned a 
simultaneous attack on all the white frontier 
posts. This uprising was attended by atrocious 
cruelties at many of the points attacked, but 
we may take note here of the movement only 
as it affected Pittsburgh. At the grand coun- 
cil held by the tribes, a bundle of sticks had 
been given to every tribe, each bundle contain- 
ing as many sticks as there were days inter- 
vening before the deadly assault should begin. 
One stick was to be drawn from the bundle 
every day until but one remained, wliich was 
to signal the outbreak for that day. This was 
the best calendar the barbarian could devise. 
At Pittsburgh, a Delaware squaw who was 
friendly to the whites had stt^althily taken out 




PLAN OF FORT PITT. 



409 



4IO Pittsburo^h 



ti' 



three of the sticks, thus precipitating- the at- 
tack on Fort Pitt three days in advance of the 
time appointed. 

The last stick was reached on June 22, 1763, 
and the Delawares and Shawanese beean the 
assauh in the afternoon, under Simon Ecuyer. 
The people of Pittsburgh took shelter in the 
fort, and held out while waiting for reinforce- 
ments. Colonel Bouquet hurried forward a 
force of five hundred men, but they were in- 
tercepted at Bushy Run, where a bloody battle 
was fought. Bouquet had fifty men killed and 
sixty wounded, but infiicted a much greater 
loss on his savage foes, and gained the fort, 
relieving the siege. As soon as Bouquet could 
recruit his command, he moved down the Ohio, 
attacked the Indians, liberated some of their 
prisoners and taught the red men to respect 
the power that controlled at Pittsburgh. 

In 1768 the Indians ceded their lands about 
Pittsburgh to the Colonies, and civilization was 
then free to spread over them. In 1 774 a land 
office was opened in Pittsburgh by Governor 
Dunmore, and land-warrants were granted on 
payment of two shillings and sixpence pur- 
chase money, at the rate of ten pounds per 
one hundred acres. 



Pittsburgh 4^1 

With the French out of the country, the 
Colonies began to feel the oppression of a 
British policy which British statesmen and 
historians to-day most bitterly denounce. 
Their opposition to tyranny found its natural 
expression in the battle of Lexington, April 
1 9' 1 775- The fires of patriotism leapt through 
the continent, and the little settlement at 
Pittsburgh was quickly atiame with the national 
spirit. On May i6th a convention was held 
at Pittsburgh, which resolved that 

" This committee have the highest sense of the spirited 
behavior of their brethren in New England, and do 
most cordially approve of their opposing the invaders 
of American rights and privileges to the utmost extreme, 
and that each member of this committee, respectively, 
will animate and encourage their neighborhood to fol- 
low the brave example." 

No foreigfn soldiers were sent over the 
mountains to Pittsburgh, but a more merci- 
less foe, who would attack and harass with 
remorseless cruelty, was impressed into the 
English service, despite the horrified protests 
of some of her wisest statesmen. American 
treaties with the Indians had no force against 
the allurements of foreign gold, and under this 



I' ' 



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l*itlsl)uri;h 413 

[)ublic mcclinL;s at l'iUsl)iir::;Ii as hciii^- " now 
commonly known hy ihc disL^racclnl ciiillicl 
of spcculaLors, of more mali^iianl nalm'cs 
llian llic savaiM; JVlini^ocs in th(; wilderness." 
This hardship L;rew in sev(M"ity nnt.il the 
hn.inces were piiL upon a more stahh- hasis. 

By i/tSi, ihere w<rc d<inorali/alion and 
mutiny at I''ort IMlt, and (icneral VViHiam Ir- 
vine was put in command. liis hrm hand 
.soon restoi'ed the; garrison to ohcdicnce. I he 
close of the war with (ircat l»ritain was cele- 
brated by the issiKi of a general order at 
th(! fort, November 6, 17S1, requiriii;.^ ah, as a 
sailor would say, "to s|)lice the main bra(c"' 

U|) to this lime the rcnn himil)' had held 
the charter to l'enns)lvania ; but as they had 
maintained a steadfast allegiance to the mother 
coimtry, the ( ieneral Assembly annulled their 
title, except to allow them to retain the owner- 
ship of various manors throughout the Stat*;, 
cmbraciiiL^ half a million acres. 

In ord(T to relieve the peojde of j'itlsbm-Ldi 
from L,^oinc( to ( ireensbur;^^ to the coiuM house 
in their sacred riL(ht of suin^- and bein;^ sued, 

' " 'l'l)e commissaries will issiw a ^;ill nf whiskey, cxlraordinary, to 
the non-coinmissionc<l ofliccrs and privates, upon lliis joyful <«rn- 
sion." — (juiieral Irvine's Order. 



4H Pittsburgh 

the General Assembly erected Allegheny 
County out of parts of Westmoreland and 
Washington counties, September 24, 1788. 
This county originally comprised, in addition 
to its present limits, what are now Armstrong, 
Beaver, Butler, Crawford, Erie, Mercer, Ve- 
nango and Warren counties. The act re- 
quired that the court-house and jail should be 
located in Allegheny (just across the river from 
Pittsburgh), but as there was no protection 
against Indians there, an amendment estab- 
lished Pittsburgh as the county-seat. The 
first court was held at Fort Pitt ; and the next 
day a ducking-stool was erected for the dis- 
trict, at " The Point " in the three rivers. 

In 1785, the dispute between Virginia and 
Pennsylvania for the possession of Pittsburgh 
was settled by the award of a joint commis- 
sion in favor of Pennsylvania. 

A writer says that in 1 786 Pittsburgh con- 
tained thirty-six log houses, one stone and one 
frame house and five small stores. Another 
records that the population " is almost entirely 
Scots and Irish, who live in log houses." A 
third says of these log houses, " Now and then 
one had assumed the appearance of neatness 
and comfort." 



41 6 Pittsburgh 

The first newspaper, the Pittsburgh Gazette, 
was estabHshed July 29, 1786. A mail route 
to Philadelphia, by horseback, was adopted in 
the same year. On September 29, 1787, the 
Leo^islature orranted a charter to the Pittsburgh 
Academy, a school that has grown steadily in 
usefulness and power, and is now the Western 
University of Pennsylvania. 

In 1 79 1, the Indians became vindictive and 
dangerous, and General Arthur St. Clair, with a 
force of twenty-three hundred men, was sent 
down the river to punish them. Neglecting 
President Washington's imperative injunction 
to avoid a surprise, he led his command into an 
ambush and lost half of it in the most disas- 
trous battle with the redskins since the time of 
Braddock. In the general alarm that ensued, 
Fort Pitt being in a state of decay a new fort 
was built in Pittsburgh at Ninth and Tenth 
streets and Penn Avenue, — a stronghold that 
included bastions, blockhouses, barracks, etc., 
and was named Fort Lafayette. General An- 
thony Wayne was then selected to command 
another expedition against the savages, and he 
arrived in Pittsburgh in June, 1792. After 
drilling his troops and making preparations for 
two years, in the course of which he erected 



Pittsburi(h 417 



several forts in the West, including Fort De- 
fiance and F^ort Wayne, he fought the Indians 
and crushed their strength and spirit. On his 
return a lasting peace was made with them, 
and there were no further raids about Pitts- 
burgh. 

The Whiskey Insurrection demands a brief 
reference. Whiskey is a steady concomitant 
of civilization. As soon as the white settlers 
had planted themselves securely at Pittsburgh, 
they made requisition on Philadelphia for six 
thousand kegs of Hour and three thousand 
kegs of whiskey — a disproportion as startling 
as Falstaff's intolerable deal of sack to one 
half-pennyworth of bread. Congress, in 1791, 
passed an excise law to assist in paying the 
war debt. The measure was very unpopular, 
and its operation was forcibly resisted, par- 
ticularly in Pittsburgh, which was noted then, 
as now, for the quantity and quality of its 
whiskey. There were distilleries on nearly 
every stream emptying into the Monongahela. 
The time and circumstances made the tax odi- 
ous. The Revolutionary War had just closed, 
the pioneers were in the midst of great Indian 
troubles, and money was scarce, of low value 
and very hard to obtain. The people of the 



41 8 Pittsburgh 

new country were uniist-cl to the exercise of 
strin*;"ent laws. The i)rouTess of the r^-cnch 
Rcx'ohition encouragetl the settlers to account 
tlu inseKt's oppressed \)\ similar tyrannies, 
ai^ainst which some ot llu-ni ix-rsuadcd them- 
selves similar resistance should l)e made. 
Genet, the PVench demai^o^ue, was sowing 
setlition everywhere. Lafayette's participation 
in die Lrench Revolution <j^ave it in America, 
where he was ticservedl)' beloved, a prestige 
which it couKl never have gained for itself. 
Distillers who paid the tax were assaulted; 
some of them were tarred and feathered ; 
others were taken into the forest and tinl to 
trees ; their houses and barns were burned ; 
their property was carried away or destroyed. 
Several thousand insurgents assembled at 
Braddock's FieKI, and marched on Pittsburgh, 
where the citizens gave them food and sul)- 
mitted to a reign of terror. Then President 
Washington sent an army of fifteen thousand 
troops against them, and they melted away, as 
a mob will ever do when the strong arni of 
Government smites it without fear or respect. 
Pittsburgh was incorporated a borough in 
1794. ller first glassworks was built in 1797; 
and both her population and her industries 



420 I *i(tsl)lll"!'Jl 

iiiiilii|)li<-il iiiilil silt" was niailt; a clly la 1816. 
Ill iS.|5 (April loth), a ^''^'^^ ^^^^ destroyed 
aliMiit one third of the total area of the city, 
iiu hithiiv; most ol the large hiisiiicss houses 
and faitorits, the luidge over the Mononga- 
lula, the laiiM- hold kiiouii as the Moiioii- 
(•alitla lloii'.c and several churches; — iu all 
about clfV'cu huudrcd luiildinors. The Legis- 
laturt; appropriated ."ji^o.ooo for the relief of 
the sullerers. 

Ill iS;'7, the miinit ipal jmix cruuient, hein^, 
iu its pt:rsouiiel, .it the uiouieut iucouipetent 
to preserve the fiiudauieiital principles on 
whii h it was estahlished, permitted a strike of 
railroad eiuplo\("es to grow without restriction 
as to the observance of law and order until it 
became an insurrection. Three million dollars' 
worth ol piopeit\' was destro\(d b\' rii>t and 
iiu fiuliai ism iu a lew hours. W hen at last 
outragetl aiithoiilN was properly shifted from 
tht; supine cit)' ( hieftaius to the itidomitabU; 
State itself, it bet ami- neit-ssary, before order 
couKl be restoreil, lor troops to (ire, with a 
sacrifice of human lile. The lesson was worth 
all It cost, ami anarch)' has nevc-r elared to 
raise its hcail in the corporation limits since 
that time. 



Pittsburgh 



421 



In 1889, the great flood at Johnstown, ac- 
companied by a frightful loss of life and de- 
struction of property, touched the common 
heart of humanity all over the world. The 




CAHNEQIE INSTITUTE. 



closeness of Johnstown geographically made 
the sorrow at Pittsburgh most poignant and 
profound. In a few hours almost the whole 
population had brought its offerings for the 
stricken community, and besides clothing, pro- 
visions and every conceivable thing necessary 
for relief and comfort, the people of Pitts- 



42 2 Pittsburgh 

burgh contributed $250,000 to restore so far 
as possible the material portion of the loss. 

Pittsburgh has thus passed through many 
battles, trials, afflictions and adversities, and 
has grown in the strength of giants until it 
now embraces in the limits of the county a 
population of over one million. The tax valua- 
tion of her property is $554,000,000. Her share 
is more than one half of the whole production 
in the United States of steel, steel rails, coke, 
oil, plate glass, glassware, harness-leather and 
iron pipe. She mines one quarter of the bitu- 
minous coal of the United States. She has 
2500 mills and factories, with an annual prod- 
uct worth $250,000,000, and a pay-roll of $75,- 
000,000. Her electric street-railway system 
multiplies itself through her streets for 250 
miles. Natural-gas fuel is conveyed into her 
mills and houses through 1000 miles of iron 
pipe. Her output of coke makes one train 
ten miles long every day throughout the year. 
Her tonnage by river and rail exceeds the 
tonnage by river and rail of any other city in 
the world ; it is equal to one half the com- 
bined tonnage of the Atlantic and Pacific 
coasts. Her rail tonnage is three times as 
large as that of New York or Chicago, double 



Pittsburgh 423 

that of London, four times that of Paris, and 
greater than the combined tonnage of New 
York, Boston and Chicago. Two hundred 
and fifty passenger trains and six thousand 
loaded freight-cars run to and from her termi- 
nals every day. Nowhere else in the world 
is there so large a Bessemer-steel plant, cruci- 
ble-steel plant, plate-glass plant, chimney-glass 
plant, table-glass plant, air-brake plant, steel- 
rail plant, cork works, tube works or steel 
freiofht-car works. Her armor sheathes our 
battleships, as well as those of Russia and 
Japan. She equips the navies of the world 
with projectiles and range-finders. Her bridges 
span the rivers of India, China, Egypt and the 
Argentine Republic ; and her locomotives, 
rails and bridges are used on the Siberian rail- 
road. She builds electric railways for Great 
Britain and Brazil, and telescopes for Germany 
and Denmark. Indeed, she distributes her 
varied manufactures into the channels of trade 
all over the earth. 

But while these surpassing industries have 
given Pittsburgh her wealth, population, su- 
premacy and power, commercial materialism 
is not the ultima tluilc of her people. She 
has the largest and handsomest court-house in 



424 



'i(l'.|)iii''li 



llic woiM, (Ik- ( I ( i\\ iiiii'' .11 ( I>iI('( I III .il liiiini|il) 
nl II. II. Is K li.ii ( l',( III. Ilci ( liiii ( 111', .111(1 

M III lullllMI'.C. .Ill- jolllltl III llf.lll\ (■\(l\ lijdl k. 

.She ',|H'ii(|-, .1 (|ii,iil( I (i| .1 iiiillioii .iiiiiii.ill\ (Ml 
llcl |i,llk'., S( ll(lll(\ .111(1 I I I" ill. nil I .""^lic 

III. mil. nil'. Ii\ |i()|)iil.ii Mi|i|i(iii OIK- ()l (III- llirce 
s)ui|>lK»iiy ( »i ( Ik -.1 1 .1-. in .\iii(-i k .i. .Slu- has 
^iv»'ll mail\ l.iiiKMi-, II.IIIK-. I(» Silence, l.llei.i 
tllK" .lllil All. Mil .1-, I I iMloillli.il ol>-,ei \ .iliM \ 
is known I III (Ml" Ik Ml! (lie woiM. I In i n li 
nU'Il are old n hln l.il lie\on(l then own nt-ed-. 
pari i( nl.ii l\ -.o Willi. nn Ih.iw, who '.[unt 
nnlhoii'. lor ((Iik.iIkmi .iikI lunev (»leiu c ; Mis. 
Maiy Sihenle\, who li.is ^i\'en the (il\' a 
j^rt'al |>aik, loin lniiiili(-(l |Mihnesnuc acres 
in ihe \ei\ he, III ol ii-. I »( M I lu laritis j untl 

llein \ riiipp-,, w ho ei(-( leil lh(- kir^fSt COHSei'- 
ViitiM'y loi [iknil-. .iiiil (lower, in oiii lonnd)'. 
There \h one utlier, Aiulnw Carnegie, who.se 
wise anil (-ontinuous n'.(- ol v .i-.t Ave.ilth lor the 
|Uil»lic ^ootl is ncarl)' lt(-\oiiil Innn.in pu-it'- 
<|en(. Mr. Carnegie has .s|ieiii iii.ni\ mil 
Ikmi-. (Ml IiImmiic'., .lit v'.alleiK--. .mil -.iienlilu" 
nuistanus m ri((sl)m"^h .iKmk-, .md imlhons 
more f<M' siimkn in'.(i(nli(Mi-. m odiei |>.n('. of 
(he W(mIiI Ihe I .nnci'ie In-. hind- .i( I'lKs- 
lMiii;h, t(MiHMismj^ .\i( ( i.illeiK-'., 1 iIm.ii\, 




COURT HOUSE. 



425 



426 Pittsburgh 

Museum and Music Hall, now In Its fourth 
year, is the rallyino-ground of the whole people 
in tlieir growing; love of resthetic and spiritual 
life. Its doors are open all day, from nine in 
the morning until ten at night, free to the 
people. And the people use it with delight, 
more than hve huntlred thousand of them hav- 
ing thronged its halls in this past year. 
Pittsburgh is truly an imperial city. 



SEAL OF THE CITY. 







INDEX 



Abercrombie, General, 30, 51 

Academy of Natural Science, 
Philadelphia, 332 

Ackland, Lady, 64 

Adams, John, 266 

Adams, Mrs. John, 310 

Adams, John (^uincy, 380 

Albany, W. W. Battershall on, 
1-37 ; settled by Dutch, l-g ; 
captured by English, 9 ; in- 
corjiorated, 10; English church 
built, 14 ; its frontier position, 
15-1S ; during the .''"rench 
wars, iS ; convention of 1754, 
20 ; in the Revolution, 20-23 ; 
becomes the State Capital, 24; 
historic survivals in, 24-37 ; 
architecture of, 30-32 ; the 
Ca]iitol descril)ed, 32-34 

Aldrich, T. 15., 205 

Allegheny, 414 

Aliniraiile OqucnJo, 244 

American Philosophical Society, 
310, 31S 

Amersfoort, 216, 219 

Amherst, Lord, 52 

Amsterdam, 3, 6 

Andre, John, in \e\v York, 194 ; 
capture of. 15S-161 

Andros, Etlnnind, 176 



Army, American, volunteer sys- 
tem organized, 380 

Arnold, B., at Saratoga, f)2 ; in 
Philadelphia, 312 ; treason of, 
160, 161, 1S2, 195 

Arni)ld, Matthew, cited, 300 

As-tpie-sent-wah, sec E. W. 
I'aige 



B 



Baldwin's Locomotive Works, 

326 
lialtimore. Congress flees to, 272 
ISarbadoes, Washington's voyaije 

to. 393 
Barclay, Rev. T., cpioted, kx) 
Barnard College, 207 
Baron, Father, 407 
Bartram, Joim, and liis garden, 

312. 314 
Battershall, W. W., on Albany, 

1-37 
Bayard, James A., 360 
Bayar<l, Richard A., 3^)0 
Bayard, Thomas !•'., 350, 351 
Beatty, Charles, quoted, 26S 
Beatty, Rev., i>riachcs first 

I'rotestant sermon 1' 1'^"- 

burgh, 407 
iicdfonl, ( iunning, 2('7 
Bedford, Cunning, Jr., J56 



427 



428 



Index 



Beecher, H. W., 247 
Beekman Mansion, 195-197 
Belcher, Governor J., 252, 257 
Bemis Heights, 23, 41, 64 
Bennington, battle of, 58 
Bertholf, Rev. G., at Tarrytown, 

154 

Beverwyck, 73, 81 

Biddle, Colonel, 122 

Bidwell, D. D., 390 

Binney, Horace, house of, 31S 

BirJ Crip, Swedish vessel, 337 

Bjork, Rev. Eric, builds Old 
Swedes' Church, 349 

Black Rock, battery at, 373, 384 

" Block House," the Pittsburgh, 
408 

Bloomingdale, absorbed by New 
York, 1 88 

Blue Anchor, the Swedish tav- 
ern, 301 

Bordentown, 269 

Boston, iSi, 1S8 

Boudinot, President, of Prince- 
ton, 28S 

Bouquet, Col. Henry, builds the 
" Block House," 407 ; defeats 
Indians, 407-410 

Bowles, naval constructor, 244 

Bowling Green, 193 

Boyle, H., 107 

Brackenridge, 269 

Bracola, scy Brooklyn 

Braddock, defeat and death of, 
51, 399-404. 416 

Braddock's Field, 418 

Bradford, Governor, quoted, 4, 6 

Bradford, press of, 306 

Brainerd, David, expelled from 
Vale, 256 

Brandt, 56 

Brazil, Emperor of, 206 

Breuckelen, sfe Brooklyn 

Brewster, E. A., 135 

Brinkerhoff, M., 132 

Broadhead, Colonel, attacks In- 
dians, 412 

Brocklandia, sge Brooklyn 



Broecke, see Brooklyn 
Broeckede, see Brooklyn 
Broicklede, see Brooklyn 
Bronck, Jonas, 77, So 
Brooklyn, iSi, 1S6, 271 ; Har- 
rington Putnam on, 213-249 ; 
Dutch settlement, 213 ; Dutch 
settlers described, 216-220; 
first church, 220-222 ; British 
rule, 224-227 ; battle of Long 
Island, 22S-240 ; the Navy 
Yard, 242 ; Fort Lafayette, 
244-248 ; modern Brooklyn, 
248 
Brooklyn Institute, 249 
Brown, General, in War of 1S12, 

378, 3S0, 3S1 
Brown, H. K., 119, 125, 135 
Bryant, \Vm. CuUen, 215 
Buffalo, Rowland B. ^lahany 
on, 367-391 : founding of, 
367 ; early history, 36S ; in- 
corporated, 370 ; strategic po- 
sition in the War of 18 12, 
373 ; Perry's victory, 376 ; 
burning of, 377 ; battle of 
Chippewa, 378; Lundy's Lane, 
3S0 ; unsuccessful siege by 
the British of Fort Erie, 3S1 ; 
the Erie Canal, 3S2-3S4 ; the 
modern city, 3S5-391 
Burgoyne, surrender at Saratoga. 
22, 23, 58-68 ; imprisoned at 
Albany, 28 
Burns, Robert, statue of, 36 
Burr, Aaron, 28, 204, 205, 254, 

259, 267 
Burr, Rev. Aaron, 252, 259 
Burr, Dr. Horace, 350 
Burwell, Dr. G. N., 3S9 
Bushy Run, battle at, 410 



Cadwalader, in battle of Prince- 
ton, 275 

Caledonia, captured in War of 
1S12. 374 



Index 



429 



Campanius, at Fort Christina, 

339 
Campbell, Douglas, cited, 6 
Canada acquired by England, 

19 
Carnahan, James, 292 
Carnegie, Andrew, 424 
Carnegie Institute, 424 
Carpenters' Hall, 314 
Carroll, Charles, of CarroUton, 

28 
Caverley's statue of Burns, 36 
Celeron, Louis, 397 
Centennial Exhibition of 1S76, 

332 
Champlain, Samuel, 45 
Chapin, E. P., 390 
Charles I., 13, 346 
Charles II., 175 
Chemnitz, surrender of, 339 
Cherry Valley, 49 
Chippewa, battle of, 378, 380 
Christiana, Swedes settle on the, 

337 : fortified, 355 
Christina, Queen, 336 
Christina Harbor, village of. 

339. 
Christinaham, 346, 347 
Church, S. H., on Pittsburgh, 

303-426 
Cincinnatus, Society of, 132 
Clark, Abraham, signer, 268 
Clinton, DeWitt, 205 ; favors 

Erie Canal, 382, 383 
Clinton, General George, at 

Saratoga, 69 ; at Newburgh, 

124-126 
Clinton, Sir Henry, 194, 229, 

236 
Clinton, James, 124 
Coit, George, 384 
Colden, C, 121 
Colden, Maria, 122 
College Settlement, New York, 

208 
Colonnade Hotel, Philadelphia, 

326 
Columbia University, 207, 211 



Colve, Captain, 175 

Congress, first general Ameri- 
can, 94 

Congress, Continental, Wither- 
spoon elected to, 265 ; flees 
to Baltimore, 272 ; meets in 
Nassau Hall, 286. 2S8 ; 
Declaration of Independence, 
318 ; and the Indians, 412 

Congress, U. S., and Whiskey 
Insurrection, 417 

Congress Spring, see Saratoga 

Connecticut, the, captured in 
War of 1S12, 374 

Constitution, the, 242 

Constitution, U. S., adoption of, 
367 

ContreccEur, Captain, 399 

Convention of 1787, 290 

Cooper, J. Fenimore, 29, no, 
157, 205 

Cooper Institute, 204 

Cornwallis, Lord, 194 ; at 
Brooklyn, 234-237 ; at Tren- 
ton and Princeton, 271-283 

Courcelle, 46 

Coxe, Right Reverend A. C, 

389 
Cramps, shipljuilders, 326 
Crane Hook, 349 
Cronyn, Dr. John, 3S9 
Crown Point, 40, 54 
Curtis, G. W., 141, 205 



D 



" Daughters of the American 

Revolution," 408 
Davies, President, of Princeton, 

259 
de Beauvois, Carel, 222 
Declaration of Independence, 

265, 270, 318 
de Kockerthal, Joshua, 107, 115 
Delaware, Washington crossing 

the, 274 
Delaware Historical Society, 35S 



430 



Index 



Denny, Governor, 406 

de Rochambeau, Count, 28 

de Tracy, Lieutenant-General, 
46 

Detroit, the, captured in War of 
i3i2, 374 

Dickens, Charles, 206 

Dickinson, John, 264 

Dickinson, President, of Prince- 
ton, 252, 259 

Dinwiddie, Governor, 394 

Dongan, Governor, lO 

Donop at Princeton, 282 - 

Dordrecht, Synod of, 89 

Dort, Synod of, 13 

Downing, A. J., I16, 135 

Downing, Charles, 135 

Drummond, Lieutenant-Gene- 
ral, besieges Fort Erie, 381 

Duke Alexis, the Grand, 206 

Duke of Veragua, 206 

Duke of York, 9 

Dunham, Carroll, 135 

Dunlap, \Vm., quoted, 17 

Dunmore, Governor, at Pitts- 
burgh, 410 

Du Ponts, the, 357 

Dutch church, Tarrytown, 152- 
156 

Dutch East India Company, 3 

Dutch West India Company, 7, 
71, 75, 87, 335, 340 



Eager, S. W., 135 

Eagle, the, 341 

Ebeling cited, 353 

Ecuyer, Simon, 410 

Edison, Thomas, 206 

Edwards, Jonathan, at Prince- 
ton, 254, 256, 259 

Elfsborg, 343 

Elizabethtown, 252 

Ellicott, Andrew, 367 

Ellicott, Joseph, founds Buffalo, 
367-369, 385 ; favors Erie 
Canal, 382 



Elliott, Lieut. J. D., in War of 

iSr2, 374 
Ellison house, Newburgh, 122, 

126 
Ellsworth, Oliver, 254, 291 
Elsinborough, 343 
Emperor of Brazil, 206 
Erie Canal, history of, 104, 186, 

382-3S5 
Ettrick house, Newburgh, 12S 



Fairfax, Lord, estates of, 393 
Fairmount Water-works, 324 
Fall's house, at Newburgh, 124 
Faneuil Hall, 157 
Fillmore, Millard, 383, 3S9 
Finley, President, of Princeton, 

260 
Five Nations, see Indians 
Flash, Sandy, 362 
Fletcher, Governor, 46 
Flypse, Vredrj'k, see Philips 
Forbes, General, 405, 406 
Forest Lawn Cemeterv, Buffalo, 

380 
Forsythe, Rev. John, 135 
Forts : Albany, 9 ; Amsterdam, 
172 ; Ann, 97 ; Box, 232 ; 
Carillon, 40 ; Casimir, 341 ; 
Christina, 339, 341, 343, 360; 
Clinton, 121, 124, 125 ; Cork- 
screw, 232 ; Crailo, 30 ; Defi- 
ance, 232, 233,417; Duquesne, 
51, 401, 405, 406 ; Edward, 
41, 58, 97; Elfsborg, 340, 
341 ; Erie, 373, 378, 3S0, 3S1 ; 
Frederick, 40, 48 ; Frontenac, 
405 ; George, 380 ; Greene, 
232; Hamilton, 216, 244; 
Hardy, 66 ; Hunter, 97 ; John- 
son, 97 ; Lafayette, 244-248, 
416 ; Lee, 271 ; Montgomery, 
121, 124, 125 ; Nassau, 337, 
340 ; Necessity, 399 ; Niagara, 
407 ; Orange, 7-9, 12, 73, 75, 
80, 83 : Pitt, 407-410, 413, 
414, 416; Putnam, 232, 233, 



Index 



431 



Forts — Continued 

239 ; Schuyler, 97 ; Sta^iwix, 
58 ; Sterling, 233 ; Sum- 
ter, 362 ; Ticonderoga, ig ; 
Washington, 271 ; Wayne, 
417 ; William Henry, iS 

Fort Stanwix Conference, 53 

Forward, Oliver, 384 

Fox's yournal, 300, 302 

Francis I., 2 

Franklin, Benjamin, 20, 28, 99, 
205, 307, 400 

Franklin Institute, 310 

Franklin, William, 265 

f>aser at Saratoga, 60-64 

Fraunces, Samuel, 1S4 

Fraunces's Tavern, 184 

Frederick, Harold, 29 

Freeman's Farm, 59, 61 

Freerman, Rev. B., 95 

French and Indian Wars, 16, 46, 
50, 91-93 

Freneau, 269 ; quoted, 175 

Frontenac, 46 ; and the Schen- 
ectady Massacre, 92 

Fugitive Slave Law. 362 

Fulton, Robert. 1S5, 206 



G 



Ganson, John, 389 

Garrett, Thomas, 362 

Gates, General, displaces Schuy- 
ler, 22 ; at Saratoga, 57-68, 
122 

Gazette, The, of Buffalo, 373 ; 
of Pittsburgh, 416 

Genet, 41 S 

(jeorge II., 17 ; portrait of, 282, 
2S7 

George III., statue of, in Bowl- 
ing Green, 194 

Germantown in the Revolution, 
320 

Gibbs's St. Martin in the Fields, 

317 
Gilder, J- B., on New York 
City, 169-21 1 



Gilman, Governor, 69 
Girard College, 326 
Gist, Christopher, 394 
Gowanus, 213, 2i8, 233 ; Canal, 

•214 
Grant, Major, defeat of, 405 
Grant, Mrs., of Laggan, 18 
Grant's Hill, fight at, 405 
Gravesend settled by English, 

222 
Gray's Ferry, Hessians at, 320 
Great Britain, wars with, 373- 

382, 411, 413 
Great Meadows, battle at, 399 
Greeley, Horace, 205 
Green, Ashbel, 292 
Greene, Gen. Xathanael, 122 ; 

plans defensive works for 

Brooklyn, 232 ; in battle of 

Princeton. 276 
Greenwich, New Yorkers at, 18S 
Grijfin, La Salle's vessel, 384 
Gustavus Adolphus and Ussel- 

inx, 335 



H 



Hale, Nathan, statue ot', 195 
Half Moon, Hudson's, 2, 3, IIO, 

170 
Hall, James, 35 

Hamilton, Alexander, 205 ; mar- 
riage of, 28 ; political princi- 
ples of, I So ; in Philadelphia, 
320 
Hamilton, Governor, 252 
Hancock, John, 314, 412 
Hand, General, 276, 2S1, 412 
Harlem absorbed by New \'ork, 

1S8 
Harrison, Provost C.C., of Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, 324 
Hart, John, Signer, 26S 
Hasbrouck, Col. J., 121, 127 
Hasbrouck House, 126 
Hawley, Jesse, and the Erie 

Canal, 3S2 
lleadley. J. T., in, 135 



432 



Index 



Helvetius, Madame, 310 
Henry, Joseph, 35, 292 
Hessians, at Trenton, 270-274 ; 

at Gray's Ferry, 320 
Hiawatha, real story of, S1-S3 
Hitchcock at battle of Prince- 
ton, 2S1 
Hodge, Mr., at Buffalo, 373 
Holland Land Company, 369 
Holland, laws of, S5 ; States- 
General of, 3, 71, 143 
HoUendare, Peter, 339 
Holy Trinity church, Wilming- 
ton, 350 
Hopkins, Stephen, 20 
Hopkinson, Francis, Signer, 269 
Houdon's bust of Franklin, 30S 
Howe, Admiral, 230, 271, 272 
Howe, Lord, 194 ; at New York, 

230, 236 ; at Brooklyn, 239 
Howe, Lord Viscount, death of, 

19, 22, !;i 
Howells, W. D., 205 
Hudde at Fort Nassau, 337 
Hudson, Henry, 2. 3, 45, no, 

140, 142, 143, 164 
" Hugh Wynne," 31S 
Hunter, Governor, 14 



I 



Independence Hall, 157, 317 
Indians in history of Saratoga, 

16 ff. ; of Schenectady, 75- 

84, 91-93 : of Buffalo, 369 ; 

of Pittsburgh, 394-41 1, 416 
Ingoldsby, Major, 4S 
Ingoldsby, Richard, 112 
Iroquois, sii Indians 
Irvine, Gen. Wm., 413 
Irving, Washington, 9, 30, Si, 

1 10, 161-166, 205, 344 ; quoted, 

146, 147 



James, Duke of York. 175, 346 
James, Henry, 29 



James II., 91 

Jamestown, Va., 157 

Jay, John, 132, 180, 205 

Jefferson, Thomas, writes De- 
claration of Independence, 
365, 31S 

Jensen, Sally, 122 

Jogues, Father, 9, 76 

Johnson, Sir John, 97 

Johnson, Sir William, 17, 51, 

52, 97 
Johnstown Flood, 421 
Jumel Mansion, 202-204 
Jumonville, death of, 399 

K 

Kalm, 314 

Kayadrossera patent, the, 45, 

53. 55 

Keith, Governor, 327 
Kennedy, Colonel, 194 
Kennedy House, the, 197 
Kidd, Captain, 206 
Kieft, Governor, 336, 337 
King George's War, 48 
King's College, 179 ; see Col- 
umbia College 
Kip, Leonard. 29 
Kipling, Rudyard, 206 
Knickerbocker, Diedrich, 164 
Knoll, Rev. M.C., 116 
Knox, General, 122 
Knox, Lucy, 122 
Konigsmark, rebellion of, 346 
Kosciuszko at Saratoga, 58 
Kossuth, Louis. 206 



La Dauphine , Verrazzano's ship, 
2 

Lafayette, 28, 206 ; at Xew- 
burgh, 122, 132 ; at Princeton, 
292 ; in the French Revolu- 
tion, 41 S 

Lake Erie, battle of, 376 

Landon, J. S., on Schenectady, 
71-106 



Index 



4-» ■> 
v50 



I-arned at Saratoga, 62 
La Salle, 3S4 

Lawreiiceville School, 295 
Le Brim, Napoleon, 330 
Le Couteulx, L. S., founds asy- 
lum. 370 
Lee, Bishop Alfred, 349, 350 
Lee, R. IL, 266 
Leisler, Jacob, 91, 95, 177, 178 
L'P'nfant, Capt. P. C, and plan 
for the National Capital, 368 
Lewis, Elizabeth, 352, 365 
Lexington, battle of, 20, 228, 

411 
Li Hung Chang at New York, 

206 
Lincoln, A., his body brought 

to New York, 204 
Lindstrom, P., Swedish engi- 
neer, 339, 341 
Livingston, Catherine, 25 
Livingston, Chancellor, 197, 205 
Livingston, Philip, 25, 30, 36 
Logstovvn and the Ohio Com- 
pany, 394, 397 
London, Philadelphia compared 

with, 300 
Longfellow cited, 29, S3, 31^ 
Long Island, battle of, 229-240 
Lord, Rev. Dr. John, 389 
Louisburg, expedition against, 

405 
Lovejoy, Mrs. Joshua, 377 
Lovelace, Lord, 107, 175, 176 
Low, Seth, Mayor of Brooklyn, 

248 
Lundy's Lane, battle of, 3S0 
Luther, Martin, 264 
Lutherans, German, at New- 
burgh, 10S-117 
Lutzen, battle of, 336 
Luzerne, French envoy, 2S8 



M 

Mabic, H. \V., on T.irrytuwn, 
137-167 
28 



Maclean, John, 292 

Madison, James, 290, 291 ; 

quoted, 267 
Mahany, R. B., on Buffalo, 367- 

391 
Maidenhead, skirmish at, 276 
A/i/i/w, the, 244 
Manhattan, island of, 75, So, 

142, 169, 213, 214, 219 
Manhattan ville absori)ed by 

New York, 188 
Manning, Captain, 175 
Manning, James, 254 
Mantua, village of, 327 
Maripiis Ito, 206 
Martin, Luther, 254 
Martin, Thomas, Madison to, 

267 
Mather, Cotton, 221 
Mauritius, 3, 7 
Mawhood, Colonel, at Princeton. 

2S0 
Mayjloiuer, the, 4, 5, no 
McCosh, President James, 295 
McKean, Governor, 358 
McKinly, President John, 355 
-McMahon, James P., 31)0 
Megajiolensis, Dominc, 9 
Mercer at battle of Princeton, 

279-2S3 
Ali'ssem^er^ The, of Ontario, 3S2 
Metro])olitan Museum, N. \., 

208 
Meynders, Birgert, iiS, 121 
Midwout, 219, 220 
Mifflin in battle of Princeton. 

275 
Miles, Colonel, at Brooklyn, 

235 
Miller, Rev. John, 10 
Minquas River, 337, 357 
Minuit, Peter, in New Nether- 
lands, 172. 173, 336 
Mischienza, tiie, 316, 320 
Mohawks, sfi- Indians 
Monmoutli's Rebellion, 302 
Montcalm, death of, 407 
Montgomery, Robert, 357 



434 



Index 



Montreal, 17S ; massacre of, 46 ; 
capture of, 4.07 

Moravians come to Philadel- 
phia, 302 

Morgan, Gen. Daniel, at Sara- 
toga, 5S-62 

Morgan, Col. George, to John 
Hancock, 412 

Morris, Gouverneur, iSo, 205 ; 
favors Erie Canal, 3S2 

Morris, Robert, 288, 314; in the 
Trenton campaign, 275; 
house, 320 

Morristown, 2S5 ; Washington 
marches to, 283 

Morse, S. F. B., 35, 206 

Morven, 265, 271, 273 

Moses, Rhind's statue of, 36 

Mount McGregor, 46, 48 

Music Fund Hall, Philadelphia, 

325 
Myggenborg, see Elfsborg 



X 



Napier, General, cited, 381 

Nassau Hall, 254, 258, 264, 269, 
270, 281, 294, 296 

Navy Yard, Brooklyn, 242-244 

New Amsterdam, 143, 144, 346 ; 
taken by the English, 175, 224 ; 
name changed to New York, 
175, 187, 224, Buffalo first 
named, 367, 372 

Newburgh, Adelaide Skeel on, 
107-135 ; the Palatine settle- 
ment, 107— 117 ; the coming of 
the Scotch and English, 117- 
121 ; in the Revolution, 121- 
126 ; Washington's stay in, 
126 ; the Nicola letter, 127 ; 
capture of Ettrick, 128-130; 
Washington's address to the 
unpaid troops, 131; recent 
history, 132-135 

New Castle, Del., 364 

New Netherlands, fur trade in. 



New Utrecht, 216 

New York, 271, 317 ; J. B. 
Gilder on, 169-2 11 ; Dutch 
settlement, 169-175 ; captured 
by the English, 175 ; recap- 
tured by the Dutch, 175 ; gov- 
ernorship of Andros, 176 ; re- 
sumption of Dutch authority, 
177 ; Leisler's rule, 177 ; in the 
Revolution, 178-184; in the 
War of 1812, 184-186; in 
the Civil W^ar, 186 ; expansion 
of, 187-189 ; the Tammany So- 
ciety, 189 ; historic survivals 
in, 190-204 ; characteristics 
of, 204-211 

New York Central Railroad, 78 

New York University, 207, 211 

Niagara, Shirley's expedition 
against, 51 

Niagara Falls, 369, 3S6 

Nicola, Colonel, letter to Wash- 
ington, 127, 132 

Nicolls, Colonel, at New Amster- 
dam, 175, 177, 224 

Nieu Nederlandt, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 

Niles, Nathaniel, 254 

Nott, President E., 105, 106 



O 



Ohio Company formed, 307 
" Old French War," 96 
Old Jersey, the ship, 242 
Old Swedes' Church, Wilming- 
ton, 350-352 
Oxenstiern revives the Usselinx 
charter, 336 



V 



Paige, E. W., cited, S3 

Paine, Thomas, 205 

Palatines, at Newburgh, loS— 

117 ; at Philadelphia, 302 
Palmer, the sculptor, 36 
Paris, treaty of, 97 ; New "\'ork 

compared with, 317 



Index 



435 



Parker, Judge, 36 

Paterson, William, 252, 290 

Patton, President, of Princeton, 
295 

Paulding, J., 160 

Paulding, J. K., no 

Penn, John, house of, 312 

Penn, Letitia, house of, 304 

Penn, William, 333 ; founds 
Philadelphia, 29S-307, 316 ; 
grants charter to Wilmington, 
353 

Penn family's charter to Penn- 
sylvania annulled, 413 

Pennsylvania, charter to, 413 ; 
dispute \\ith Va., 414 

Pennsylvania Historical Society, 
323 

Pennsylvania Hospital, 314 

Pepper, Dr. \Villiam, services to 
the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, 324 

Percy, Lord, at Brooklyn, 236 

Perry, Commodore, 376 

Philadelphia, Talcott Williams 
on, 297-334 ; geographical 
site, 297 ; early houses, 29S ; 
coming of William Penn, 300- 
302 ; rapid growth of city, 
302-317 ; in the Revolution, 
317-320 ; between 1790 and 
1S20, 320-323 ; history of 
water supply, 323 ; the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, 324 ; 
the city before the Civil 
War, 325-329 ; modern Phila- 
delphia, 329-334 

Philadelphia Library, 306 

Philips, P>ederick, and his 
Manor, 145-151 

Phipps, Henry, conservatory 
of, 424 

Pilgrims compared with Pala- 
tines, 113 

Pitt, William, statue of, 194 ; 
befriends colonies, 404 

Pittsburgh, S. H. Church on, 
393-426 ; site determined by 



Washington, 393 ; first perma- 
nent settlement, 397 ; taken 
by French, 399 ; the Praddock 
expedition, 399-404; English 
take Fort Duquesne and name 
it Pittsburgh, 406 ; Indians at- 
tack, 409 ; in the Revolution, 
411-413 ; becomes the county 
seat, 414 ; in the Indian war of 
1791, 416; the Whiskey In- 
surrection, 417 : incorporated, 
41S ; the strike of 1S77, 420 ; 
industrial importance, 422 ; 
higher life of, 423-426 

Plymouth Rock, 6 

Poe, Edgar Allan, 205 

Polhemus, Rev. Mr., at Brook- 
lyn, 220, 221 

Pontiac, confederacy of, 408 

Poor at Saratoga, 62 

Porter, General P. B., in War 
of 1812, 378, 381 ; favors Erie 
Canal, 3S2 

Pratt Institute, 248 

Prince of Wales, 206 

Princess Eulalia, 206 

Princeton, W. M. Sloane on, 
251-296 : first settlement, 251 ; 
College of New Jersey estab- 
lished at Elizabethtown, 252 ; 
removed to Princeton, 254 ; 
parting from Yale, 254 ; early 
character, 256-260 ; Wither- 
spoon and his administration, 
260-266 ; Revolutionary spirit 
in, 266-270 ; the Trenton 
campaign, 272 ; battle of 
Princeton, 274-2S4 ; mutinous 
Continentals at, 285 ; Congress 
meets at, 2S6 ; Washington's 
visits to, 2S7 ; contributions to 
the Convention of 17S7, 289- 
291 ; modern Princeton, 291- 
296 

Prinz, John, in New Sweden, 
339-342 

Pruyn, John V. L., 35, 36 

I'utnam, at Brooklyn, 234 ; at 



43^ 



Index 



Putnam — Continued. 

t'htla4elph(a, 272 ; at Printe- 
u.n, 2^5 

Piitnarft, Girkon, af. Haratoga, 
69 

Putnam, Harrington, on Brook- 
lyn, 213-240 



r^uaissack, 107, 114, n8, 127, 

128 
Quebec, capture of, 4rj7 
Qufefen Annfe, 108 ; gives bell to 

Lutherans at Newburgh, 115, 

r^ueen Anne's War, 4«, q6 
Queen Charlotte, British war 

vfefebfel, 375 
r^ueen Charlottfc, portrait of, 

Queen's Hea/I Tavern, 1^4 
Queenstown in War of r«r2, 

R 

Raymond, President, of Union 

( . War of rfti2, 3S0 

)'• /ck, 8, 2», 73, 80, 

Revolution, Phila^lelphia in the, 

3(8 
f<.eynolrJs, Marcus, fjuoterl, 28 
Khind's statue of Moseh, 3^j 
(tiall, fjfcfieral, burns Buffalo, 

377 ; retreats, 380, 381 
Rir hardson, II. II,, 3t, 424 
Rif;ha.rdaon, William, 3</j 
Richmond Mill, 202 
Riedesel, Madame, 64, 65 
Ripley, General, at Fort Erie, 

Pising, John Claudius, 341 
J'ilientiouse, 314 ; his observa- 

t^-ry, 3 '8 
Roe, E. P., 135 
Rogers, Wm. P., 3f/) 
Romeyn, I'oniine, 102, 103 



Roosevelt, Governor, cited, 178 
Ross house, the Betsy, 316 
Rudman, Pastor, cited, 345 
Ruttenber, E, M., 135 
Ryan, Bishop S. V^, 389 
Ryswyck, peace of, 95 



ht, Augiistuie, J 57 

St, Clair, defeat of, ^i(, 

St, Francis de Sales, (iiAtx of, 

28 
St, George's church, Schtnec- 

ta/ly, tot 
St, John, Mrs,, 377 
St, Luke's church, I'hiladelphia, 

326 
St, Mark's Church, Philadelphia, 

326 
St, Martin in the Fields, Giijbs's, 

317 
St, Paul's chapel. New York, 

20 r, 202 
St. Peter's church, Albany 

32 
Santo Domingo, 357 
.Saratoga, E, II, Walwortli 
39-69 ; site of, 39-42 ; 
name, 42-44 ; French and In- 
dian struggle!) for site, 45-48 ; 
massacre of old Saratoga, 49 ; 
Seven Vears' War, 5f>-52 ; 
medicinal value of Saratoga 
waters discovered, 52 ; the Fort 
Sianwix Conference, 53 ; pfc- 
liminary warfare of the Amer- 
ican Revolution, 54-56; Bui- 
goyne's defeat and surrendei , 
5^r-68 ; General Schuyler rnaken 
old Saratoga his uummer resort, 
68 ; Tjideon Putnani founds 
the present Saratoga, 69 
Sassoonan, 397 
.Schaets, Rev. Gideon, 89 
Schenectarly, 16, 29, 46 ; J. S, 
Landon on, 71-106 ; bettled, 
7/ ; tjiiljjfcct to tlie hutch West 
India' oinpany, 71-73 ; Arendt 



'0. 



on, 
the 



Index 



437 



Schenectady — Conlinut-d 

Van Curler's directorship, 75- 
83 ; land purchased from the 
Indians, S3 ; character of the 
early settlement, S3-S7 ; under 
English rule, S7-90 ; the first 
legislative assembly, 90 ; gov- 
ernment seized by Leisler, 91 ; 
Indian wars, 92-96 ; Schenec- 
tady in the Revolution, 97-99 ; 
religious history, 100-103 : 
modern history, 104-106 

Schenley, Mary, 424 

Schermerhorn, Symon, 16 

Schonowe, 79, S i 

Schoonmaker, Domine, 226 

Schute. Swen, 343, 365 

Schuyler, Elizabeth, marriage of, 

28 

Schuyler, Margaret, 29 
Schuyler, Peter, 12, 46 
Schuyler, Philip, shot by Indians, 

49 

Schuyler, Gen. Philip, 19, 22, 
23, 27, 2S ; in battle of Sara- 
toga, 5S-6S ; visits Saratoga 
Springs, 68 

Schuyler, Mrs. Philip, iS 

-Schuyler Mansion, 27 

Schuylerville, 22, 41 

Scott'. Walter, 162 

Scott, Gen. Winfield, in War vf 
1S12, 37S, 3S1 

Selyns, Rev. H.,at Brooklyn, 221 

Seneca Chief, first boat on Erie 
Canal, 3S2 

Seven Years' War. 50 

Seymour. Governor, quoted. 22 

Shelton, Rev. Dr. Wm.. 3S9 

Sherman, Roger, 291 

Shipley, EHzabeth, 365 

Shipley, William, at Wilming- 
ton, 352, 365 

Shirley, expedition of, 51 

Six Nations, see Indians 

Skeel, Adelaide, on Newburgh, 

107-135 
Skipper Block, 170 



Sleepy Hollow, 147, 164, 167 

Sloane, W. M., on Princeton, 
251-296 

Sloughter, Governor, replaces 
Leisler. 177 

Smith, James M., 390 

Smithsonian Institution, 294 

Spaulding, E. G., introduces 
Legal-Tender Act, 391 

Spuyten Duj'vil Creek, fight at, 
170 

Squam Island, the Detroit 
aground on. 374 

Stackpole, Dr., composes Yankee 
Doodle, 30 

Stanhope, Samuel, 292 

Stanwix, General, builds second 
Fort Pitt, 407 

Stark, General. 275 ; at Fort 
Edward. 66 ; at Princeton, 2S1 

Stedman, E. C, 205 

Steuben, 28 ; at Xewburgh, 132 

Stirling, in battle of Long Isl- 
and, 234-239 ; in Trenton 
campaign. 271 

Stockton, Richard. 252, 265, 269 

Stoddard, R. H., 205 

Stone, Gen. C. P., imprisoned 
at Fort Lafayette, 245, 246 

Strasburg Cathedral, 34 

Stuyvesant, Peter, at New Am- 
sterdam, 9, Si, 144, 175-177. 
21S-221, 24S ; buys land west 
of the Delaware, 340 ; captures 
forts on the Delaware, 343 

Suffolk County in the Revolu- 
tion, 22S 

Sullivan, General, at Brooklyn. 
235-237 ; at Princeton, 285 

Sunnyside, Washington IrNnng 
at. 162, 163 

Swedes, on the Delaware, 335- 
344 ; their church at Phila- 
delphia, 301 

T 

Tammany Hall, history of, 1S9, 
190 



438 



Index 



Tarrytown, II. W, Mahie on, 
137-167; fiescriljed, 137-14'^; 
early Dm< li beiileinent!!, 140- 
<45 ; derivalimiof name, 146 ; 
the I'hiliiib Maiinr-IIoube, 148- 
150; thfe old iJiiich church, 
150-/56; 'larrytowH in the 
Kevolution, i57-i6<j; capture 
iif John Andre, 158-161 ; 
Wa.iiiinj^ion liviii|^, 161-164 

'I alnall, Joseph, Washington 
viisit.s, 357; givcb clock to 
Wilmington, 350 

Tawasentha, Vale of, 2f/ 

Taylor, Mayard, 205 

Tenai ong, j<v Tinicum 

IhacUeray, \V. M.,2rj() 

J haw, Wni., gencroisily In I'iUb- 
hiirgli, 424 

'I hcsbchenmaei.her, l<ev. J'etruh, 
88 

Ticohderoga, i<j, 4''. 5f, 54, 233, 

Tiemann, Mayor, death of, 170 
Tifft house, the, 377 
I ilden, Samuel J., 205 
I iniciim, l'ruu'i> fort at, 340 
'I'orkillius, Key, K., at fort 

Christina, 338, 365 
Tovvnsend, Charles, 384 
Townsend, Sam, 36( 
Iran Hook, j(<? Tlrane If(j(ik 
I fcaly of 1783, 281J 
I rclalldigheel, 34 1 
Trent, Captain Wm., cnialilishes 

first settlement ut I'iltbhurgh, 

3'j7-39'J 
Trenton, liatlle of, 370-374 
I rinily Church, Ntw Vork, 327 
I ryoii, fiovernor, r|uoted, 56 
I iihi idnni, 271 



U 



Union College, io2-jfj6 
University of Pennsylvania, 324 
University .Settlement, New 
Vork, 208 



Ubselinx, VVm.,and liib irarling 

company, 335 
Utrecht, 216 ; treaty nf, i/j 



Vftllandigham, E, N., on Wil- 
mington, 335-3f'5 

Van Curler, Arendt, at Schenec- 
tarly, 75-84, fj2 

Vanderheyden I'alace, 30 

Van Kensbelaer, Killiaen, 8, 75 

Van Kensbelaer, Stephen, 25 

Van Kenbbelaer Islanrl, 4 

Van Kensbelaer Manfir-i louse, 
25, 26 

Van Mechtenhorst, Urandl, y 

Van Twiller, Walter, 336 

Van Wan, Isaac, i6ri 

Van Wyck house, 132 

Van Wyck, James, 132 

Verjilanck hoube, 131 

Verrazzano, 2 

Verbailleb, peace of, 281J 

Virginia, dispute with I'ennsyl- 
vania, 414 

Vliessingen, ^eif I'lusliing 

Von Knnigbmark, 346 

Von Steuben, jv*? Steuben 

W 

Waalhoghl, 213 
Wadsworlh, Colonel, 122 
Wallalioiil, village nl, ■j.h, 233, 

242 
li'iilk-in-lhi- H'attr, first sleam- 

lioal on I ake l'>ie, 384 
Walwfjrih, \i. H., on Saratoga, 

3'j 7" 
War of 1812, si'i' various chapters 
Washington, plan i,\ liiy, 187, 

368 
WabhingioM, Ceorge, and the 
bile of I'ittshurgh, 3ij3 ; al 
(jreal Meadows, 300 1 with 
Hraddock, 404 ; openb road to 
I' oil I )u(jiiesiic, 405 ; al 



Index 



439 



Washington , George — Cotitimted 
Schenectady, 98 ; in battle of 
Long Island, 23S-240 ; at 
Trenton and Princeton, 270- 
2go ; at Saratoga, 69 ; in New 
York, 181, 182, 194, 197-202 ; 
at Newburgh, 114, 122. 126- 
131 ; visits Wilmington, 355- 
358 ; instructions to St. Clair, 
416 ; plan for the National 
Capital, 367 ; quoted, i, 23, 
23S 

Watkins, Rev. H., iiS 

Wayne, Anthony, 125, 286,416 

Webb, Captain Thomas, loi 

Weigand's Tavern, Newburgh, 
126 

W^esley, John, loi 

Western University of Pennsyl- 
vania, 416 

West India Company, 143, 173 

West Point, 122, 160, 378 

Whiskey Insurrection, 417 

Whiteheld, George, 256 

Whitman, Walt, 205 

William and Mary, 91 

William III., 177 

William IV., 206 

Williams, David, 160 

Williams, Talcott, on Philadel- 
phia, 297-334 

Williams College, 26 

Williams house, Newburgh, 122 

Williams, William I., 389 

Willing, Thomas, founds Wil- 
mington, 352 

Willingstown, 352 

Willis, N. P., no, 135 

Wilmington, E. N.Vallandigham 
"fi. 335-3^5 ; plans of Usse- 



linx, 335 ; expedition of Min- 
uit, 336 ; settlement on the 
Christina, 337 ; governorship 
of Prinz, 339; struggles of the 
Swedes and Dutch for the Del- 
awaie. 341-344; Dutch rule, 
344-346 ; English supremacy, 
346 ; friendly services of Wm. 
Penn, 346-349 ; Old Swedes' 
church, 349 ; Wilmington laid 
out, 352 ; services of William 
Shipley, 352 ; the earlier city, 
353~3^o ; before and in the 
Civil War, 360-364 ; modern 
changes, 364 

Winthrop, Fitz John, 46 

Witherspoon, John, 254. 260- 
271, 290, 291 

Wiedrich, Michael, 390 

Wilkeson, Samuel, 384 

Wilkeson, John, 390 

Worth, Captain, in War of 1S12, 
381 

Wolfe, death of, 19, 52, 407 

Wolfert's Roost, 161 

Wyncoop, Gitty, 122 

Wyoming Valley, 49 



Y 



Yale relations with Princeton, 

254 
Yorktown, 127, 1S2 
Yorkville absorbed bv New 

York, 1S8 



Zoological Garden, Philadelphia, 

323 



Historic Towns of New England 

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BELLnS-I.HTTRRS 
Brown in jj. Poet and /V\an 

A Sui\(\. llv 1'"msai!|' in l.i'i'iif.K C'aky. author t>t" "Tonny- 
spu ; His lloiiu's, llis l'"i iciuls, aiid His Wi^ks." With 
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tralions in I'lioiomaviin.' and sv)nu" text illustiatii)ns. l.argo 
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sdii iss\u'.l l.isi M'.ii, .iiul wliuli uu'i Willi siu li a lorilirtl rooi'i>tiv>n, 

Tennyson 

Mis Moines, His I'lirmls, and His Woik. 1!\ Iviisvin ill 
laiiiiK r\KV. With iS ilhistialions in photomax nie 
and soinr tc\l illiislral ions. Sn ond rdilion. I aii^i' S" , 
^dl lop (m ,1 |...\). $^V75. 

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and mU-iii|;fiil, ami llu- iiialUi ailiniial'K aiianj^cd, w hiU- llu- n\i'ol\aincul 
work is lanllKss, wiih aii wmK csimh lalK luaikt'd li>i i\i ilK tu i. " ( '/♦/iij^vi* 

Petrarch 

riu- I'lisi Mmh-tn .Schohif aiul M.in ol l.rttiM's. .A SrU"i-ti(»n 
limn his ( '01 trspinuhMu t" willi iMUTarcio and othiM" 
l''ri<"nds. lU-su;n('d to iUnsiiau- Hu- Urginnin^s (>t tlu" 
Kcnaissain r. Ti .mshilcd 1 1 mn t he 01 iginal l..itin t(>!',edu-r 
with H isloi n ,d 1 nl lodin I ii'ns ,ind Xotrs, 1>\ | \ mi •• 11 \K 
\i\ K«m;i\'.ii\, I'li'Ussci (i| HisiiMv in (."olundMa Inuei 
sil\ , w ilh ihr t ollaiioialion ol i li \K\ WlNnil'S I'KR Koi VV\ 
sdinclmu- I'loli'ssoi nt I aim in Svvarthinoir V'olK'gc. 
llinMi,il(-d. S". !i|;.MH\ 

"rciranli iswuKlv known as a porl ol tin' Italian lan(;ua|'.r w l\osi» 
loM- loi I ama is imnioi 1 ah i ,1 111 a lon|; sciii-s o{ soniuMs, It was an 
ailinualilr itU-a loi I'lol, Kolnnson lo lianslati" lor \is a si-li-ition Iroiw the 
U-llcis ol I'rliarcli, ami to int('is|ins(> tlirii llion^hl till ami svliv>lai l\ , lu-sU 
ami inti"irstiii|;, notes ami >oninienls," \', )' /V";,i. 

Literary Heart lislones 

Sludics ol the Mmnr I lie ol t'nlain Wnieisand Thinkris. 
|!\ Mvkh'N 11 \ k I \m«, aulhoi ol " Some ('oioni.d Home 
sli-ads .iiid Ihrii Stottrs." "\\lu-tr idiosts Walk." rl. . 
Till lip in sfls ol two Nulninrs c.u h, in l>o\rs I'ldh 
liltisli.ilcd Id". 
I'lie liisl i.Miis w ill l<e : 

(.'liniliillr llu>nt<>. I lliinnnti Mimp, 

WllllMni Cowppi. I .l>>l<» KnoK, 

111 tills series, Marion llailami presents, iml »liv l<io^'raplu<<s, l>ni, as 
iminaii.l 111 ilie siili lill(\ simlies ol tlie lioine lite ol eeilain writers ami 
lliiiikn , Ilic N.ilninrs will l<e lonml as inlereslinj; as stories, ami, imleeil, 
llu \ liaM Ihch |.iepauil 111 ll\e same metlnul as woiiM he pnrsueil in wiit- 
lii|; a s|oi\, ilial 's lo sa\ , with a >liie sense ol pi o|>oi lion. 

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